Ben & Jerry’s's Co-creator Jerry Greenfield Steps Down, Citing Parent Company Muzzled Social Mission
Ben & Jerry’s's co-creator Jerry Greenfield has parted ways from the iconic brand after nearly 50 years, according to a post from his business partner Ben Cohen.
The announcement shared what he called a message from Greenfield, in which the departing co-founder called it one of the “toughest and most painful decisions” of his career.
Greenfield asserted that the organization had been silenced by its corporate owner and that its autonomy to speak out on social causes was now “lost.”
“If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we cared about, then it no longer deserved to exist as a company at all,” Greenfield said.
This move came despite a merger agreement meant to protect the brand’s social mission, Greenfield added.
“This autonomy existed in no small part because of the special merger agreement” that he and Cohen had negotiated with Unilever, Greenfield wrote.
The ice cream maker and its parent firm did not immediately respond to a media inquiry from Reuters.
Recently, Cohen said that amid disagreements with Unilever, the brand had tried to arrange a sale to buyers at a fair market value of $1.5bn–$2.5bn, but the offer was turned down.
Unilever and the ice cream brand have been at odds since at least 2021, when the ice-cream maker announced it would halt sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s has also sued its corporate parent over alleged attempts to silence it and has referred to the conflict in Gaza “genocide.”
