Jerry Greenfield Biography

Jerry Greenfield hails from the United States of America and is a philanthropist and businessman. He is the famous co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc. Along with his friend Ben Cohen (who is four days younger to him and born in the same hospital) he started the first Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in an old renovated gas station at Burlington, Vermont. They were both 27 years old when they started the venture. Both the friends shared a mutual interest in food and wanted to do something profitable in the food business. Initially, they had planned to sell bagels but later they decided to engage in the ice cream business because of lower start-up cost. The ice cream venture attained huge success within a short period of time and within five years franchises came up in different locations. In 2000, the co-founders traded their ice cream business to multinational food giant Unilever for $325 million; however, they continued to remain active in the business. Greenfield is presently the President of the Trustees for the Ben and Jerry Foundation. He also has a seat on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities. Together, Greenfield and Cohen have established a new kind of business that helps find ways to bring about social, institutional and environmental changes.