Ben Cohen Net Worth - Pulptastic

What Is Ben Cohen’s Net Worth and Salary?

Ben Cohen is an American businessman, activist, and entrepreneur with a net worth of $150 million. He co-founded the Vermont-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s with Jerry Greenfield, using $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 bank loan. Today, Ben & Jerry’s earns roughly $700 million annually and has expanded to more than 600 shops.

In 2000, Unilever purchased the company for $326 million when annual earnings were $237 million. Cohen resigned as the company’s CEO in 1996 and is now involved with the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, a social justice organization that funds organizations working for progressive social change.

In recognition of his leadership in pioneering socially responsible business, Cohen was honored by the New York Open Center in 2000. He and Jerry Greenfield have also published two books: “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).

Ben and Jerry were named U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1988.

Early Life and Education

Ben Cohen was born in New York City in 1951 and grew up in Merrick, New York, in a Jewish household. He attended Sanford H. Calhoun High School, where he met Jerry Greenfield in gym class. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, but dropped out in 1972.

Career

After dropping out of college, Cohen worked a variety of odd jobs, including taxi driver, McDonald’s cashier, ER clerk, and Pinkerton guard. He eventually found work as a craft teacher at the Highland Community School and began learning how to make ice cream. In 1978, he and Jerry took an ice cream making course at Pennsylvania State University.

Ben & Jerry’s: From Homemade Ice Cream Shop to Global Franchise

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Parlor in Burlington, Vermont in May 1978. They wanted to open a bagel shop together, but decided to focus on ice cream instead. The initial investment was $8,000, and the business got a bank loan for the same amount. In 1980, Ben & Jerry’s began selling pints of their ice cream in grocery stores, and by 1987, the company was worth $30 million. The first franchised Ben & Jerry’s shop opened in 1981 in Shelburne, Vermont, and as of 2019, there were 615 Ben & Jerry’s locations.

The company is known for its unique and popular flavors such as Cherry Garcia, Half Baked, and Phish Food. Ben & Jerry’s uses non-GMO and fairtrade certified ingredients from Certified Humane cage-free farms. The company has also made a commitment to activism, with a focus on social and environmental justice. Ben Cohen explained the company’s philosophy to “Delish” by saying, “Let’s just…be good.” The company believes that customers are more likely to buy and enjoy their ice cream because they agree with the values of the people who make it.

Philanthropy and Activism

Ben Cohen is passionate about philanthropy and social causes. He has supported organizations such as Denver Homeless Out Loud, the Anti Displacement Project, and The Street Vendor Project through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. Additionally, Cohen oversaw the non-profit organization Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities and the progressive advocacy group TrueMajority. He has supported Democratic presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, and Barack Obama. In 2012, Ben was involved in the launch of the Stamp Stampede campaign to get money out of politics. In 2016, he and Jerry were arrested at a Washington, D.C. Democracy Awakening protest. After the arrest, Ben & Jerry’s released a statement in which they said, “Sometimes, when something really matters, you have to put your body on the line. You have to take a stand.”

In July 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced their support for the boycott of sales of their ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank’s occupied Palestinian territories. During the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 2016, Cohen became a vocal Bernie Sanders supporter. He released an ice cream called Bernie’s Yearning under his private label, Ben’s Best, in January of that year. He released another Bernie-inspired flavor, Bernie’s Back, in 2019, which was awarded to 40 contest winners instead of being sold in stores.

Since childhood, Ben has suffered from anosmia, which has limited his taste and smell. In a 2021 interview with “Delish,” he stated, “When Jerry and I first started creating the flavors [in the 1970s], he’d give me something to taste. He’d say, ‘Well, how do you like it?’ I said, ‘It’s good. But I can’t tell what flavor it is.’ So he would just keep on adding more flavoring until I could guess.”