Jerry Greenfield is an American businessman, activist, and entrepreneur, with a net worth of $150 million. Greenfield is best known as the co-founder (with Ben Cohen) of the Vermont-based ice cream firm Ben & Jerry’s. They founded Ben & Jerry’s with $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 bank loan.

Since founding their first store in the late 1970s, Ben & Jerry’s has grown to over 600 locations. Today, Ben & Jerry’s earns approximately $700 million per year. Unilever, the food behemoth, paid $326 million to buy the company in 2000. At that time, annual earnings were $237 million.

Who is Jerry Greenfield?

Jerry Greenfield was born on March 14, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. He comes from a Jewish background and was raised on Long Island. Jerry met Ben Cohen in a middle school gym class in 1963, and both went to Sanford H. Calhoun High School. After graduating from high school, Greenfield attended Ohio’s Oberlin College, where he studied pre-med and worked as an ice cream scooper in the cafeteria.

He graduated in 1973 but was not accepted into medical school, so he went to New York and moved in with Cohen. Jerry worked as a lab technician before moving to North Carolina with his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Skarie in 1974 after being denied admission to medical school again.

Greenfield and Cohen founded the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation in 1995 as a social justice organization dedicated to “funding organizations here in Vermont and around the country that are working for progressive social change.”

The United States Small Business Administration honored Ben and Jerry the U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year for 1988. The duo’s books include “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book” (1987) and “Ben & Jerry’s Double Dip: How to Run a Values-Led Business and Make Money Too” (1997).

How old is Jerry Greenfield?

He is currently 73 years old.

What is Jerry Greenfield’s net worth?

He is estimated to be worth $150 Million.

What is Jerry Greenfield career?

Greenfield and Cohen had planned to create a bagel store, but when they saw how expensive the equipment would be, they enrolled in a $5 ice cream-making school at Pennsylvania State University. Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Parlor debuted in May 1978, with its first outlet in Burlington, Vermont, a college town with no ice cream shops.

Ben and Jerry invested $4,000 each to start the business, and they also received a $4,000 bank loan. Cohen has anosmia, which impairs his sense of smell and taste, which is why Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is known for its trademark chunks.

He told “Delish” in 2021, “When Jerry and I initially started developing the flavors [in the 1970s], he’d give me something to try. He would say, ‘Well, how do you like it?’ I answered, ‘It’s good. But I can’t tell which taste it is. So he’d just keep adding taste till I guessed.”

Greenfield and Cohen began selling pints of their ice cream in grocery stores in 1980, and by 1987, the company had a $30 million valuation. The first Ben & Jerry’s franchise opened in Shelburne, Vermont, in 1981, and there were 615 outlets as of 2019. The company’s flavors include Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream, Half Baked, Phish Food, Chunky Monkey, and Cherry Garcia, and the ingredients are fairtrade certified, non-GMO, and sourced from Certified Humane cage-free farms. Greenfield and Cohen have not been involved in Ben & Jerry’s administration or operations since Unilever acquired the company in 2000.

In an interview with “The Boston Phoenix,” Jerry claimed, “We have no responsibility, authority, or influence…”It is quite different. We’re sort of goodwill ambassadors for the brand, which I appreciate because — and I believe this is true for Ben — we both want to help promote the company’s ideals, not only selling more ice cream but also the other things that the company stands for and works for.”