Ben Cohen
Co-Founder
Ben & Jerry's
About Ben Cohen
Ben Cohen was born in 1951. In 1978, he and his childhood friend, Jerry Greenfield, opened a homemade ice cream parlor in an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont, on an initial investment of $8000.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream pioneered many unusual flavors and an equally unusual business philosophy that sought to integrate social concerns into their day-to-day business activities. In 2000, despite his best efforts to keep the company independent, Ben & Jerry’s was acquired by Unilever.
Ben divides his time between the Eisenhower Media Network, a group of retired military officers who support a less militaristic multi polar world order and Up In Arms – a campaign to shift money from Pentagon excess to social needs. Currently, he is up to his ears trying to keep the activist progressive social mission of Ben & Jerry’s alive – #FreeBenandJerrys, FreeBenandJerrys.com. He is married to Tatiana Repnikova and has a daughter, Aretha.