Ben & Jerry’s co-founder to speak at Northwest

greenfield medium

Jerry Greenfield, co founder
of Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc.

Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc., will speak on the Northwest campus at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Charles Johnson Theater. The free lecture is being sponsored by the Student Activities Council.

Greenfield and his long-time friend and associate Ben Cohen are the men behind one of the most talked-about, and least conventional, success stories in American business. Co-founders of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream empire, the partners built a storefront venture into a $300 million enterprise with a business plan deeply rooted in social responsibility and people-first management.

Born in Brooklyn in 1951, Greenfield met Cohen while attending middle school in Long Island. After graduating from high school with a National Merit Scholarship, he enrolled in Oberlin College as a pre-med student.

At Oberlin, Jerry got his first taste of working in the ice cream industry when he took a job as a scooper in the college cafeteria. His favorite course, however, was “carnival techniques,” where he picked up a number of skills, including fire-swallowing.

After graduating, Greenfield applied to medical school but wasn’t accepted and began working as a lab technician in New York. In 1976, he and Cohen decided to pursue their dream of starting a food business together. They settled on ice cream and began researching the industry. After taking a $5 Penn State correspondence course in ice cream making, the fledgling entrepreneurs set up Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vt., in 1978.

Greenfield made all the ice cream for the shop, which soon became known for its rich, unusual flavors and community-first approach to business.

After taking a break and moving to Arizona so his wife, Elizabeth, could finish her Ph.D., Greenfield returned to Ben & Jerry’s in 1985 as director of mobile promotions. Since then, he has been involved in various functions, including distribution and marketing.

Today, Greenfield’s official title is co-founder, and he works to promote the company’s many social and environmental initiatives. He is also president of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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