Jolande Sap was unanimously chosen to be the party leader for GroenLinks (GreenLeft) in the House of Representatives on the 16th of December 2010. Sap, born in Venlo, the Netherlands on May 22, 1963, has been a member of the House of Representatives for GroenLinks since September 2008.

From June 2009 until May 2010 she was a member of the Committee de Wit, which investigated the recent financial crisis. Sap was chosen as the political talent of the year 2009 by the parliamentary press.

In 1981 Sap obtained her Gymnasium B diploma at the Collegium Marianum in Venlo, the Netherlands. Sap studied economics at the Tilburg University between 1981 and 1989 where she specialized in political economy and philosophy. Between 1985 and 1988 she was a student assistant and coordinator at the department of development cooperation. She continued to work at the University of Amsterdam as researcher for three years. She studied the difference in pay between men and women. After that she became a research associate at the government Council for Emancipation. She initiated "Out of the Margin": two international conferences on feminist economics in 1992 and 1998. This led to a book, Out of the Margin. Feminist Perspectives on Economics, which she edited with Susan Feiner.  Since 1993 she was active within GroenLinks, as member of its economic committee.

In 2003 she left the ministry to become director of LEEFtijd (LIFEtime). She reoriented LEEFtijd on new issues such as the demographic developments in the Netherlands and lifetime-planning policy. In 2006 she co-authored GreenLeft's election program. She was put on the eighth place of the list of the House of Representatives for the 2006 elections. In 2007 she became a member of the panel on principles of the Van Ojik committee, which would organize the discussion leading to a new Greenleft manifesto of principles. In 2008 she left LEEFtijd for a sabbatical.

Sap is a specialist on social-economic issues. She values economic independence as an important condition for freedom. She seeks to stimulate emancipation and fight social exclusion. She wants to work on practical policies which would implement GreenLeft ideals such as self-realization, fairness and durability.

Sap is currently living in Amsterdam, together with her husband and two children.