George Valdes serves as the VP of Product at IrisVR, a company dedicated to bringing the efficiencies and new opportunities afforded by virtual reality to the A/E/C industry and beyond. 

Prior to this role, George served various leadership roles at Augmate, the wearable environment management platform helping to build a wearable ecosystem in order to improve the way we work.  

In 2013, he co-founded Built-In: The Architecture and Entrepreneurship Meeting, the largest meetup in NYC devoted to fostering entrepreneurship within the A/E/C industries. 

Prior to his work with Augmate, George was in charge of the successful re-accreditation of Columbia University's Master of Architecture program. He has received numerous awards including the national Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal for leadership. In 2014, George, along with his colleagues, received the prestigious Graham Foundation grant to continue their on-going research on the notion and practices of company culture and their spillover effects onto the city.

George has also served as Research Scholar at the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University and has held served as instructor for the summer introductory courses in Architecture and Real Estate within the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Through the online program at Florida International University, George is an Adjunct Instructor in a course entitled "Designing Models" which introduces students to the product development process in order to produce working prototypes for startup ideas.

Prior to his transition into technology, George worked as a designer for a select number of prestigious firms including The Living (acquired by Autodesk), MOS, Monad Studio, and Arquitectonica.

Through a diverse set of experiences, George has always tackled every challenge with a sense of curiosity,  drive, and passion to execute. 

His interests include:
Wearables
New Interfaces 
VR 
Synthetic Biology
Data Science
Product Management