Regarded as innovative and forward-thinking, Ridwan Kamil’s background as an architect benefits his position as the current Governor of West Java.

As the mayor of Bandung for five years, Kamil turned the nation’s mountainous third city into a smart city, jumpstarting the “Bandung Command Centre” in 2014 as an integrated high-tech platform to monitor situations in real time, such as traffic jams and flood levels. Thinking green, he also created the Gardening Indonesia movement to promote city-centre gardens around the notoriously traffic-choked nation.

After winning West Java’s gubernatorial election, Kamil proved he was not letting the people of his community down during the pandemic. Heading one of the most populous regions in Indonesia, with 50 million people, Kamil utilised his resources and network to find a way to build a fort against Covid-19, acquiring oxygen from private contacts in China, Singapore and Australia. He also called off infrastructure projects to make treatment available and free for those struggling with the coronavirus.

Before getting into politics, Kamil and his partners founded Urbane, an architectural firm modernising commercial buildings, university towers, museums and mosques. He obtained a scholarship in 1999 to study at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.