Build n Blaze Founder Named 2025 INNOVATE100 Honoree

March 20, 2025

Build n Blaze is excited to announce that our founder and CEO, Radia Funna, has been selected as one of New Jersey's 100 most influential innovation leaders for 2025 by the prestigious INNOVATE100 initiative, which is designed to highlight and elevate the state's finest innovation leaders and showcase collaboration within companies and among organizations.

 

This distinguished honor recognizes her extraordinary contributions at the intersection of global technology governance and sustainable business transformation. Contributions that have at their core, Radia's xHuman Theory, which explores how advanced digital technologies impact people, institutions, and societal structures. This human-centered framework has guided her work in helping organizations navigate the complex landscape of emerging and disruptive technologies while ensuring innovation aligns with societal well-being and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Through Build n Blaze, Radia has revolutionized digital transformation consulting by pioneering approaches that prioritize interoperability, risk mitigation, and collaborative governance enabling organizations worldwide to adopt emerging technologies safely and sustainably, from crafting metaverse strategies to implementing AI sustainability practices.

 

Elevating New Jersey's Innovation Ecosystem

The INNOVATE100 honor specifically recognizes Radia's role in elevating New Jersey as a hub for responsible, future-ready innovation. Her work demonstrates how global expertise can drive local impact, creating pathways for organizations and communities to thrive in the digital age. As Michele Siekerka, NJBIA President and CEO, stated about the INNOVATE100 initiative: "Our vision is to see New Jersey reclaim its stature as 'The Innovation State,' and the INNOVATE100 honorees exemplify those who are leading the way".

 

Join Us in Celebrating Innovation Leadership

We invite our clients, partners, and stakeholders to join us in celebrating this well-deserved recognition of Radia's innovative leadership. Her INNOVATE100 honor represents not just personal achievement, but validation of the collaborative approach to digital transformation that defines Build n Blaze's commitment to bridging global frameworks and local action, empowering organizations to harness technology for inclusive growth and societal resilience.

 

Congratulations, Radia, on this outstanding recognition of your leadership in shaping New Jersey's innovation ecosystem and your contributions to global technology governance!


Build n Blaze is the global authority in standards-driven digital transformation. Led by UN Special Advisor and global standards authority Radia Funna, we empower organizations to harness AI, metaverse, quantum, and emerging tech for sustainable, human-centered impact—ensuring innovation serves everyone, everywhere. Learn more at www.buildnblaze.com.

November 12, 2025
Build n Blaze CEO and UN Special Advisor, Radia Funna , has been invited as a featured panelist at the OECD COP30 Virtual Pavilion , joining an international group of policy experts, climate innovators, and digital transformation leaders for the session , Advancing an Environmentally Sustainable Digital Transformation: Implementing the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment . The session will be held on November 14, 2025 and brings together global stakeholders to address one of the most pressing challenges of the digital age; ensuring that the technologies transforming our economies do not accelerate the environmental crises we are working to solve.​ A Critical Conversation at the World's Most Important Climate Forum COP30 has placed technology squarely at the center of global climate action. The OECD's invitation reflects institutional recognition that AI and digital technologies carry an environmental footprint that must be measured, governed, and reduced and that credible standards are the most powerful tool available to policymakers navigating this challenge. The panel draws directly on the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment, adopted by OECD Ministers in June 2025 — the most comprehensive intergovernmental framework to date for aligning digital transformation with environmental sustainability goals. The session explores how countries and stakeholders across the digital ecosystem can leverage technology to support climate resilience while reducing AI's growing environmental footprint, discussing key challenges in designing and implementing environmentally sustainable digital policies and sharing good practices from around the world. The Standards Architect at the Intersection of AI and Climate Funna's invitation to the OECD COP30 panel reflects her unique position at the intersection of AI governance, environmental standards, and international policy. As Chair of the IEEE P7100 Drafting Group and architect of the world's first comprehensive framework for measuring AI's environmental impact — adopted as the foundational document for the P7100 standard — she brings unparalleled technical authority to the policy conversation.​ " If we get this right, AI won't just accelerate climate solutions, it will set the blueprint for how technology can deliver equitable, planet-positive impact at scale , " Funna has stated. " But getting it right requires measurement. You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and right now, the world is making trillion-dollar AI investment decisions without a common language for environmental accountability . " Building the Bridge Between Measurement and Action The session directly supports the Green Digital Action Declaration , agreed upon by 82 countries and 1,800 organizations at COP29, and the newly launched Green Digital Action Hub — a platform supporting technological climate solutions across 82 countries. Funna's measurement framework provides essential infrastructure for governments and organizations seeking to report credibly on AI's environmental footprint under these emerging global commitments.​ Build n Blaze's work on AI environmental measurement represents the kind of standards-based implementation support that the OECD Recommendation calls for; moving beyond aspiration to provide organizations with the technical tools and governance frameworks needed to translate climate commitments into verifiable action. The Build n Blaze Collaborative's Sustain-AI-ble initiative extends this work into a global platform for knowledge sharing, policy implementation, and cross-sector collaboration on AI sustainability. To explore how Build n Blaze's AI sustainability frameworks can support your organization's environmental reporting and compliance, visit the Build n Blaze Collaborative . Learn more about the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment .
Jordan
June 19, 2025
Radia Funna leads world’s first national immersive tech study in Jordan, pioneering new global standards for digital readiness, governance, and inclusive innovation.
2nd UN Virtual Worlds Day
June 12, 2025
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AgeTech
June 9, 2025
At IEEE, Radia Funna introduces Age-Responsive Design—a trailblazing, adaptive AgeTech framework setting visionary standards for a rapidly aging world.
Quantum Cybersecurity
April 29, 2025
Radia Funna, Build n Blaze CEO, appointed chair of IEEE Quantum Cybersecurity subgroup—advancing digital resilience and protecting infrastructure in the quantum era.
AI Sustainability
February 27, 2025
Radia Funna’s AI sustainability framework anchors IEEE P7100, the first comprehensive global standard for measuring and managing AI’s environmental impact.
AI Sustainability
November 11, 2024
Radia Funna becomes Chair of IEEE AI Sustainability Metrics Group, driving consensus on world's first tech standard for quantifying AI’s environmental footprint.
UNGA Hall
October 30, 2024
Build n Blaze endorses UN Global Digital Compact, advancing leadership in responsible digital transformation and global standards for inclusive, ethical technology.
1st UN Virtual Worlds Day
June 25, 2024
Radia Funna establishes and chairs the first UN Virtual Worlds Day, creating a global platform for metaverse innovation and international cooperation.
Metaverse
March 27, 2024
ITU FG-MV approves Radia Funna’s framework establishing the first universal standard for user participation and engagement in virtual environments worldwide.
ITU FG-MV in MV by Build n Blaze
March 14, 2024
Build n Blaze develops revolutionary digital twin for ITU FG-MV, pioneering immersive standardization and transforming global collaboration on metaverse governance.
ITU FG-MV
January 17, 2024
Radia Funna leads the UN’s first official metaverse definition, establishing the global framework for virtual world governance and policy.
Metaverse
October 11, 2023
ITU FG-MV approves Radia Funna’s User Confidence Framework, setting new global standards for trust and ethical security in virtual environments.
Metaverse
September 6, 2023
Radia Funna launches ITU Task Group on Metaverse Implications for People, pioneering human-centered standards and ethics for global virtual world governance.