People in VIA

Jiří Bárta

Executive Director

As Via's Executive Director, Jiří is responsible mainly for working with the Board of Directors, Via's financial planning and oversight, communication with major donors, and strategic program planning. Before joining Via in 1997, Jiří had worked as a freelance consultant for NGOs and Czech municipalities. Prior to that, he also worked as a Project Manager and Management Consultant with a Prague-based consulting firm CS-Project, Ltd.

Jiří received his Masters degree at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He is a member of several global networks that promote development of community philanthropy. For the past 21 years, Jiri enjoys playing fastpitch softball. Nothing can be better than to hitting a line drive double after a long and stressful work day.

Táňa Hlavatá

Director for Philanthropy Development

Táňa is responsible for one of the main programmatic components at Via - the development of philanthropy - working with donors, potential philanthropic partners, and promoting better philanthropic practices. Tana also consults corporations on the creation of possible non-profit partnerships and on the selection of publicly beneficial topics for corporate philanthropic giving.

Táňa is a graduate of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Prior to working with Via, she was a small grants manager of the USAID Democracy Network Program at The Foundation for a Civil Society and in 1993-1995, a Protocol officer at the US Embassy in Prague. Together with Jiří Bárta and Wendy Luers, she founded the Via Foundation in 1997. Her hobbies are cycling, skiing and hiking.

Hana Vosmikova

Program Director

Hana is responsible for the smooth and effective functioning of the program department. She also concentrates on projects supporting nonprofit development including the Non-Governmental Organization Sustainabily Program and the Academy of Social Enterpreneurship. Before joining the VIA Foundation in 2001, she worked as Fundraising Director with an international environmental organization. Her family lives in the countryside where she enjoys gardening. She is especially proud of her herbs and spices garden.

Alexandra Václavíková

Financial Director

Alexandra has been with Via since its founding in 1997. Originally hired as a financial assistant, she now is the Via Foundation's Financial Director. She was born and raised in Northern Moravia and has participated in numerous training programs focused on NGO financial management.

Alexandra´s hobbies are culture, especially music, sports and traveling.

Jitka Nesrstová

Development Director

Jitka has been with Via since October 2006. She is responsible for the planning and implementation of the development program, working with individual donors and foundations, consulting non-profits in fundraising and cooperating in VIA’s international projects.

Jitka is a graduate of the Faculty of Business Administration, The University of Economics in Prague. Before joining Via, she worked as Fundraising Director with an international environmental organization where she continues to volunteer. Her hobbies are music and traveling.

Brad Hoar

Development Manager

Brad is responsible for the development program at Via working with individual donors, potential philanthropic partners, and in consulting non-profit organizations in development practices. Before taking a full-time position in Fall 2005, he volunteered with Via and helped to establish the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society.

Brad is a graduate of Colby College and a native of Kent, Connecticut. Prior to becoming actively involved in philanthropy, he was a high school teacher in the United States and a lower schools teacher in Akita Prefecture, Japan. As the only non-Czech staff member at Via, Brad spends his time desperately working to improve his Czech language skills and trying to find new locations in Prague that may occasionally broadcast American baseball games.

Alžběta Mattasová

Project Manager

Alžběta is responsible primarily for the T-Mobile Fund as Project Manager. After earning a degree in social science in Prague and Dűsseldorf, she worked as a cultural assistant for the German minority in Czech Republic.

Katka Bláhová

Project Manager

Katka works as Project Manager since September 2002. She leads both the "Helping People Improve Their Communities" program which assists the revitalization and construction of public spaces in the Czech Republic and the Via program in partnership with Ceská Sporitelna supporting community centers for at-risk youth. Katka also is responsible for the development project "Transformation Cooperation with the Balkan Community Initiatives Fund (BCIF)" which is aimed at sharing the organizational experience with a similar foundation based in Serbia.

Kateřina Pařízková

Project Coordinator

Kateřina worked as Office Manager at Via since 2002. From the beginning of 2006, she took on a new role as Project Coordinator working in support of Via's program staff. As Katka says, "I love it; I have the possibility to be involved with the projects we support." She additionally is responsible for Via's website.

After graduating university, Katka worked in an environmental nonprofit organization and in a food production company, both jobs in office management. When she's not tackling project challenges at the office, she enjoys painting, baking cakes, culture, and being outdoors.

Jan Kotecký

Project assistant

Jan is Via’s newest staff member. He assists the project director, managers, and coordinators by preparing reference material for their work and by helping to alleviate the burden of the mountains of paperwork project monitoring inevitably generates. In his spare time, he enjoys endangering his life by competing with Prague’s heavy traffic on his pink bicycle.

Marta Paduchová

Office Manager

Marta has been Via's Office Manager since September 2006. She was born and raised in Prague and has worked as production manager in various spheres of culture (including music, sports, and film), printing publication, and designer at a zoological garden. Her hobbies are culture, being outdoors, animals, and sports.

Olga Záhorbenská

Financial Assistant

Olga is a new member of the Via team. Her previous job experiences range from hotel business through music management to film production for American/ English film productions. She is a strong believer in the civil society and a passionate animal rights fighter. Her hobbies are music, modern art, travel and animals..

Vojtěch Staněk

Administrative Support

Vojtěch has worked at Via since the devastating floods of 2002. He has been in administrative support and currently is the assistant office manager, in which position he's become a photocopying and paper-shredding specialist. Born and raised in Prague, Adalbert graduated secondary school in 2002 and is now a student at the Literary Academy - The Department of Creative Writing and Media Communications.