Jerry Greenfield was born in
Brooklyn, New York, four days before his future business partner Ben Cohen. He
grew up and went to school in Merrick, Long Island. It was there that he first
met Ben in junior high school, and the two have remained close friends ever
since. Greenfield graduated from high school with a National Merit Scholarship
under his belt and enrolled at Oberlin College to study pre-med.
At Oberlin, Greenfield got his
first taste of the ice cream industry when he took a job as a scooper in the
college cafeteria. After graduation, he worked as a lab technician in New York
and lived with his school buddy Ben in an apartment on East 10th Street. In
1977, with Jerry thoroughly sick of his occupation as lab tech, the two friends
joined together in an unlikely venture: running a food business together. The
two eventually settled on ice cream, and, after a bit of research (and a $5
Penn State correspondence course in ice cream making), opened Ben & Jerry’s
Homemade ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont in May 1978.
Ben and Jerry soon became known
throughout Vermont for their rich, unusual flavors and community-oriented
approach to business. They sponsored a Fall Down Festival and a free outdoor
movie festival, and celebrated their anniversaries with a Free Cone Day. Jerry
began by making all the ice cream, but as
the
company expanded into new markets, he soon found himself handling everything
from distribution to orientation to employee motivation.
Today a model for American business success, Greenfield and Cohen have been recognized for fostering their company’s commitment to social responsibility by the Council on Economic Priorities (which awarded them the Corporate Giving Award in 1988 for donating 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to non-profit organizations through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation), and by the U.S. Small Business Administration (which named them U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year in 1988 in a White House ceremony hosted by President Reagan)
Why Jerry?
Jerry
will close our conference with his closing keynote. He will deliver an
inspiring tribute to America’s entrepreneurial spirit, full of anecdotes and
radical business philosophies. He will address how to build and drive a
mission-driven brand that drive intense customer and employee loyalty.
To dig a little deeper, Jerry will discuss the promise and importance of
“values-led” business to drive loyalty, how to harness the power of social
responsibility and creative management to build an empire, the importance of a
fun and community-oriented approach to business and surviving amongst fierce
competition.
Join
Jerry after the conclusion of his keynote for some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream!
Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Jerry.
Download The Latest Agenda