Jerry Greenfield

Jerry Greenfield (born March 14, 1951) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and activist. He is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc.

Greenfield grew up on Long Island. He attended Oberlin College, where he was a National Merit Scholar and followed a pre-med curriculum before graduating in 1973. He applied unsuccessfully for medical school before deciding to go into business with Ben Cohen, a childhood friend. After taking a course in ice-cream making from Penn State, Greenfield and Cohen opened their first ice cream store in downtown Burlington, Vermont. The company, which sold to the British-Dutch corporation Unilever in 2000 has since opened almost 200 franchised shops and reports earnings of $237 million annually.