Olaf Ephraim

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Olaf René Ephraim (born 30 September 1965 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch investment banker and politician. He worked for MeesPierson and Fortis, rising to a leadership position in Fortis’s trading division. In 2005 he and another director were dismissed amid a dispute over bonuses; Fortis was later ordered to pay severance. After Fortis, Ephraim became an investor and served on several boards, including Deminor Active Governance Fund, and he taught at the Academy for Banking and Insurance.

Ephraim joined the Forum for Democracy (FvD) in 2017 and served as treasurer from 2019. He was elected to the Dutch House of Representatives in March 2021. In May 2021 he left FvD and joined Wybren van Haga’s new party Belang van Nederland (BVNL). He served as an MP until December 2023 and focused on finances, the euro, and culture in Parliament.

He left BVNL’s parliamentary caucus before the 2023 election and continued as an independent, though he remained a BVNL member. In August 2023 he left the Groep Van Haga caucus and continued as Lid Ephraim, still affiliated with BVNL. BVNL did not include him on its candidate list for the November 2023 election.

Ephraim grew up in the Gooi region, attended Het Baarnsch Lyceum in Baarn, and studied at the University of Amsterdam (law propedeuse, 1985; business economics, 1987). He lives in Amsterdam with his wife, Mieke Wennekes, and their two daughters. He enjoys chess and has competed in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, reaching a peak FIDE rating of 2105 in 2013. He has also performed as a comedian in the early 2000s.