Cohen, Bennett (Ben) and Greenfield, Jerry
Born: March 18, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York (Ben); March 14, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York (Jerry)
Vocations: Activist, Author, Business Leader, Public Speaker (Ben); Activist, Author, Business Leader, Public Speaker (Jerry)
Geographic Connection to Pennsylvania: State College, Centre County
Keywords: Ben & Jerry’s; Ben & Jerry’s Foundation; Burlington; Vermont; Businesses for Social Responsibility; Colgate University; Corporate Giving Award; James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award; National Small Business Person of the Year Award; New York University Medical School; Oberlin College; Peace Museum’s Community Peacemakers of the Year Award; Pennsylvania State University; Skidmore College; Social Venture Network
Abstract: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are life-long friends and the cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Incorporated. They began with taking a five dollar correspondence course at the Pennsylvania State University and turned the idea in to a unique, multi-million dollar business led by its values. In 2000, Ben and Jerry sold the company to Unilever, but remain influential in its management. Through close work with many organizations like Businesses for Social Responsibility and the Ben & Jerry Foundation, they continue their mission to make it businesses’ responsibility to give back to the community and bring sixty values to the corporate world.
Biography:
The story of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield begins in 1951. They were born a mere four days apart in the same Brooklyn hospital; Jerry on March 14 and Bennett on March 18. As children they grew up less than two miles apart, but went to separate elementary schools. Jerry attended Smith Street Elementary and Ben went to Old Mill Elementary School graduating the valedictorian of his class. Though the two were both placed in the advanced curriculum at Merrick Avenue Junior High School, they ironically met as the overweight kids in their seventh-grade gym class. The following year Ben was moved to another junior high school due to overcrowding at Merrick, and the two would not be able to truly begin their friendship until they met again on the first day of class in 1966 at Calhoun High School. Upon graduation, both looked to college in order to receive deferment from military service in the Vietnam War.
Jerry enrolled at Oberlin College and Ben began his short college career at Colgate University in 1969. More importantly, the summer between Ben’s freshman and sophomore years of college first introduced him to the ice cream industry, serving ice cream out of a Pied Piper truck. After only three semesters at Colgate, Ben dropped out and moved back home to Long Island. He would soon return to Pied Piper as a box man in their ice cream freezers. Jerry would eventually finish at Oberlin in 1973 as a pre-med major, but was never accepted to medical school despite taking classes at New York University to increase his chances. Ben later enrolled himself in the University Without Walls at Skidmore College where he took courses related to his interests of jewelry making and pottery from 1971 to 1974. After a number of years where Ben and Jerry jumped from job to job in several states based on whims, romance, and curiosity, they settled in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1977 with an idea to go into business with each other.
Since Ben and Jerry had always shared an interest of food, they decided that whatever their business would be, it would involve food. Their first plan, as stated in Fred Lager’s book, Ben & Jerry’s: The Inside Scoop, was to start a business that would sell bagels on Sundays called the United Bagel Service, but after researching the start up costs they decided on their second choice of ice cream. The prospective businessmen decided to split the cost of a five dollar correspondence course in ice cream making from The Pennsylvania State University and passed with A’s because the test was open book. The next step, according to the timeline on the their official website, for Ben and Jerry included the renovation of an old gas station in the college town of Burlington, Vermont where they opened their first ice cream parlor with an investment of $12,000 on May 5, 1978. They had immediate success with the store and began selling pints out of Jerry’s car to other vendors in the area. Within the first five years franchises were popping up not only in Vermont, but in neighboring states as well. By 1986, Ben and Jerry’s had established a new manufacturing plant in Waterbury by making themselves a public company and also began donating seven and a half percent of its annual earnings, according to an article by Alex Taylor, to the newly formed Ben and Jerry Foundation which funded community-oriented projects and other non-profit organizations. In 1987, Jerry married his long-time girlfriend Doctor Elizabeth Skarie, who would give birth to their only son Tyrone the following year.
In 1988 Ben and Jerry’s community-oriented approach was formally recognized first when the Council on Economic Priorities made them recipients of the Corporate Giving Award based on the work of their foundation and, again, when President Ronald Reagan and the United States Small Business Administration named them the United States Small Business Persons of the Year. Throughout the next decade, Ben and Jerry would use their product to address social and environmental issues, alongside other active groups, including education, the use of hormones in food, healthcare, global warming, and alternative uses for government weapons spending. For their work, the dynamic business leaders received the James Beard Humanitarians of the Year Award in 1993 and the Peace Museum’s Community Peacemakers of the Year Award in 1997. As mentioned in their official timeline, Ben and Jerry not only used this time to expand socially, but also applied the values-led concept to cultivate markets globally as well in Canada, Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Russia, and South America. The company grew to its peak in a successful attempt, as described in Is Ben and Jerry Losing its Bohemian Appeal?, as reestablishing what the company stood for: modern hippiedom, adult fun, letting go and rediscovering the child in you, making it the down-to-earth alternative to the more sophisticated brands. Before the beginning of the new millennium, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Incorporated was reaching annual net sales of nearly $250 million.
Yet, on April 12, 2000, after a failed attempt to return the company to private ownership, Ben and Jerry sold their company to the Unilever Corporation for over $325 million. The sale included a unique agreement, of which the company’s timeline described as separating the Ben & Jerry’s brand from other ice cream businesses owned by Unilever to maintain its existing social mission and brand integrity. Though they no longer own the company, their influence is still heavily felt. Jerry stayed on board as the Director of Mobile Promotions in addition to being the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ben, however is not as directly involved with the management of the company, but does join Jerry in speaking on their behalf to groups and other business leaders about the benefits of a values-led corporation.
Cooperatively, Ben and Jerry have continued to give through 1% For Peace, now known as Businesses for Social Responsibility, and the Ben & Jerry Foundation which, reported by the foundation’s website, grants over $1.1 million a year to community-oriented projects and other non-profit organizations. Their choice of business opportunities has pioneered a new kind of corporation which finds new ways to think and act for social, institutional, and environmental change.
Works:
Sources:
For More Information:
This biography was prepared by Nicholas Anthony.