Ben & Jerry's ice cream co-founder Ben Cohen said that his long-term business partner, Jerry Greenfield, was "torn apart" by his decision to leave the company they founded. Greenfield departed the ice cream company in mid-September following pressure from parent company Unilever (NYSE:UL) to remain quiet about his values.
"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," Cohen told CNN on Sept. 17, a day after Greenfield announced his resignation. "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."
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In his resignation letter, which was posted publicly, Greenfield explained that Ben & Jerry's had always been a value-driven company, and he and Cohen had prided themselves on building a business that stood up for things like LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights, voting rights, and the rights of women and immigrants.
"It's with a broken heart that I've decided I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry's," Greenfield's letter began. "This is one of the hardest and most painful decisions I've ever made."
"Love, equity, justice — they're part of who Ben and I are, and they've always been the true foundation of Ben & Jerry's," Greenfield wrote. "From the very beginning, Ben and I believed that our values and the pursuit of justice were more important than the company itself. If the company couldn't stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn't worth being a company at all."
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However, following pressure from Unilever to keep quiet about these larger issues, Greenfield decided he could no longer be a part of the company he had helped build.
"Coming to the conclusion that this is no longer possible at Ben & Jerry's means I can no longer remain part of Ben & Jerry's. If I can't carry those values forward inside the company today, then I will carry them forward outside — with all the love and conviction I can," he said.
Cohen told CNN that he plans to stay with Ben & Jerry's for now. As part of an independent board that has partial control over the brand, Cohen is working to convince Unilever to sell Ben & Jerry's to a group of private investors who will champion the company's social mission.
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"I'm glad that we're both standing up for the values of Ben & Jerry's," Cohen said. "I think that I can be most helpful from the inside and and Jerry's going try to be helpful from the outside."
Even with Greenfield's departure, Cohen is confident that his influence will remain and their friendship will endure.
"It's been an amazing ride," he told CNN. "It's been an amazing adventure, an amazing odyssey. There's been good times, there's been bad times, there's been challenging times, and we've been through them all together, Jerry and myself, and it's just built a stronger bond between us."
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