What Is Jerry Greenfield’s Net Worth?
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has a net worth of $150 million. Along with his business partner, Ben Cohen, Greenfield started the company with $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 bank loan. Today, Ben & Jerry’s has more than 600 shops and earns roughly $700 million annually. In 2000, the company was sold to Unilever for $326 million.
Greenfield and Cohen also created the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, a social justice organization that funds progressive organizations in Vermont and around the country. In 1988, the duo was named U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year by the Small Business Administration. They have also published two books: “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book” in 1987 and “Ben & Jerry’s Double Dip: How to Run a Values Led Business and Make Money Too” in 1997.
Jerry Greenfield’s Early Life and Career
Jerry Greenfield was born on March 14, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up on Long Island in a Jewish family. In middle school, he met Ben Cohen, his future business partner, in a gym class.
After graduating from Sanford H. Calhoun High School, Greenfield attended Ohio’s Oberlin College. He studied a pre-med curriculum and worked as an ice cream scooper in the cafeteria. He graduated in 1973 but was not accepted into medical school.
Greenfield returned to New York and moved in with Cohen. He worked as a lab technician but still failed to get into medical school. In 1974, he moved to North Carolina with his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Skarie.
Ben & Jerry’s: From Homemade Parlor to Global Brand
In May 1978, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Parlor opened its first location in Burlington, Vermont. Co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield each invested $4,000 and obtained a $4,000 bank loan to start the business. Originally planning to open a bagel shop, they pivoted to ice cream after finding the equipment too expensive. Cohen’s anosmia, which limited his sense of taste and smell, led to the signature chunks in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors.
The company began selling pints in grocery stores in 1980 and opened its first franchised shop in 1981. By 1987, Ben & Jerry’s was worth $30 million. As of 2019, there were 615 Ben & Jerry’s locations worldwide. The company is known for its fairtrade certified, non-GMO, and Certified Humane cage-free farm ingredients.
In 2000, Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s, and Greenfield and Cohen are no longer involved in management or operations. However, they continue to serve as goodwill ambassadors for the brand and promote its values.
Philanthropy and Activism
In the ’80s, Greenfield left Ben & Jerry’s to move to Arizona with Skarie while she worked toward a Ph.D. in psychology. After they moved back to Vermont in 1985, he became the company’s Director of Mobile Promotions. Greenfield and Cohen are known for supporting social causes and philanthropic efforts, and the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation has helped organizations such as The Street Vendor Project, Denver Homeless Out Loud, RISE St. James, and the Anti Displacement Project.
In 2016, the pair was arrested at a Washington, D.C. Democracy Awakening protest. Ben & Jerry’s released a statement about the arrest on their website, writing, “Jerry and Ben and hundreds of others felt that they had to do something more, once the marches and the speeches came to an end. Sometimes, when something really matters, you have to put your body on the line. You have to take a stand.”
In July 2021, Greenfield and Cohen announced that they were supporting the boycott of sales of their ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank’s occupied Palestinian territories and wrote an op-ed for the “New York Times” in which they stated, “While we no longer have any operational control of the company we founded in 1978, we’re proud of its action and believe it is on the right side of history.”
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