Jerry of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Resigns
On September 16th, 2025, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, resigned from his position within the company. Greenfield founded Ben & Jerry’s with his business partner Ben Cohen in 1978 and has been with the company for 47 years. In a letter posted on social media by co-founder Ben Cohen, Greenfield explained that in the recent months, Ben & Jerry’s has lost its independence surrounding its social missions.
The brand has historically spoken about numerous social issues over the years and is known for its progressive political beliefs. According to Greenfield, Unilever, the multinational owner of Ben & Jerry’s, has been working to stifle these missions because of the company’s opposition to such beliefs. Because of this loss in autonomy, Greenfield stated he could not remain at the company “in good conscience.”
Greenfield also emphasized the timing of this loss of independence as especially damaging, stating that the current administration “is attacking civil rights, voting rights, and the rights of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community.”
Unilever has had much turnover since they signed their original deal with Ben & Jerry’s in 2000. Historically, Unilever has remained separate from the social and political missions of Ben & Jerry’s. However, Ben Cohen shared that the tension between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s began to heat up when Greenfield and Cohen opted to pull the ice cream brand from Israel after the country’s actions in Palestine. This decision was overruled by Unilever, sparking the feud between the ice cream company and its parent.
Since then, Unilever has been fighting to stop Ben & Jerry’s from posting and speaking out about social and political issues. Cohen states that the new management in charge of Unilever opposes the missions and beliefs of Ben & Jerry’s and is working to dissolve that aspect of the company.
Cohen spoke out about his business partner’s departure in an interview with CNN, expressing Greenfield’s reasoning: “Jerry has a really big heart, and this conflict with Unilever was really kind of tearing him apart. So he felt like he had no choice but to resign. Jerry’s kind of sad that it’s come to this, but part of him is feeling a sense of relief that he’s no longer in this intense conflict.” Cohen plans to remain at the company in an effort to fight to gain its independence back from Unilever.
