Olivier van Beemen (1979) is an investigative journalist, based in Amsterdam. He started his investigation on Heineken in Africa in 2012 and published two books in Dutch: Heineken in Afrika (Prometheus, 2015) and Bier voor Afrika. Het best bewaarde geheim van Heineken (Prometheus, 2018). The latter is not just an updated edition, but a completely new book, containing the best stories and analyses from the first. This book has been translated into English, French, Italian and Slovenian.
Van Beemen is a regular contributor to the Dutch quality daily NRC and the investigative website Follow the Money. Encouraged by several professors, he is now also writing a PhD on Heineken in Africa at the department of political sciences at the University of Amsterdam. Earlier in his career, Van Beemen was the correspondent in France for several leading Dutch and Belgian newspapers and magazines, such as Het Financieele Dagblad, Elsevier, Knack, De Tijd en Het Parool, and the author of In Parijs (Balans, 2009).
Van Beemen is not a man of sensation seeking journalism, but someone who’s in it for the long run (…) His perseverant and thorough way of working leads to investigative journalism that matters.
Jury Report Free Press Awards
Olivier van Beemen is everything a journalist should be: passionate, infinitely inquisitive and not satisfied until he discovers how things really work.
Bas Heijne
Olivier van Beemen! His stories always surprise me. He is far from trendy, his analyses are nonconformist. Yes, I learn from him.
Adriaan van Dis
Olivier van Beemen is the gadfly of Heineken in Africa. The investigative journalist is so good at this, that the company has – after all – decided to open up and grant him numerous interviews.
Wim Bossema (Volkskrant)
Heineken in Africa - Bier voor Afrika 