Arch. Vessela Valtcheva-McGee

Vessela Valtcheva-McGee has extensive experience with sustainability in both practice and education. With over 10 years of experience in sustainable development, Vessela has both practical hands-on experience with sustainability assessment tools and frameworks in the construction and development sector, and deep theoretical knowledge of business sustainability, policy and education development, and leadership. While working closely with the business sector as a sustainability consultant, Vessela has also been actively involved in change leadership through the international NGO green building council network.
Serving as a founder and President of a chapter of the US Green Building Council in the United States for over 6 years, Vessela had the opportunity to be involved in the development of one of the most influential NGOs in the US. In 2010 Vessela became a founding member on the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Green Building Council where she is currently President. She works on sustainable policy development, voluntary certification initiatives, and represents the council at the World Green Building Council's Europe Regional Network, a coalition of organizations working together to facilitate industry leadership and drive the transition to a low-carbon, circular economy.
Since 2008 Vessela has been a Managing Partner in Triple Green Building Group, LLC - a full service sustainability consulting and education, company. Triple Green is one of the first companies recognized as Authorized Education Delivery Partners by the United States Green Building Council, providing the company with a license to deliver professional education curriculum to the international market. Triple Green works with a number of major professional education development companies in the US and Europe to create courses on sustainability and provide both live facilitation and web-based education programs, as well as train-the-trainer events. Today, after 10 years of collaboration, the company continues to be a trusted Education Partner of the USGBC 10.

At the present Vessela heads the European branch of Triple Green Group which is based in Sofia, Bulgaria.  In her capacity as a green building consultant who has every recognized credential in the branch, Vessela has had the opportunity to work on numerous green building certification projects of national and international significance. She has personally managed the certification of LEED and BREEAM projects in Bulgaria, Russia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Mexico and the US. 

Vessela Valtcheva-McGee holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design where she is an honorary guest lecturer, and a post-graduate diploma in Business Sustainability from Cambridge University. She has delivered guest lectures on sustainability at Harvard, Berkeley and various universities in Eastern Europe. She is a LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C AP, BREEAM International Assessor, DGNB auditor and EDGE Auditor. Vessela is part of a recognized group of change leaders of sustainability in Europe working to coordinate a collaborative sustainable development effort with governments and relevant stakeholders across the region.