Murat Kurum

Kurum's record is measured in concrete rather than trophies. As minister he has overseen a mass housing program that has delivered hundreds of thousands of units across Turkey, and he has run the reconstruction of the southern cities destroyed in the February 2023 earthquakes, one of the largest rebuilding efforts in the country's recent history. In 2026 he was handed the COP31 presidency, putting a career civil engineer at the head of a UN climate conference that Antalya will host with around 85 world leaders expected. The distinction is not a prize. It is a job with a deadline, and the summit's outcome will be the closest thing he has to a verdict.