Bennett Cohen was born on the 18th March 1951, in Brooklyn, New York City, USA of Jewish descent. He is a businessman, social activist as well as philanthropist. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are the founders of food processing company Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc., which is well known for manufacturing Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Cohen has been active in business from 1977 to 2000.
How rich is the businessman? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the net worth of Ben Cohen is as much as $150 million, as of the data given in mid-2016.
Ben Cohen Net Worth $150 Million
To begin with, Ben grew up in Merrick on Long Island. While studying at high school, he met his friend Jerry Greenfield with whom they later shared business. Cohen studied in a number of educational institutions including Colgate University, NYU, the New School as well as Skidmore College. Moreover, he did various menial jobs such as working as a taxi driver, McDonald’s cashier, Jamesway and Friendly’s mop-boy, ER clerk etc.
In 1977, Ben alongside his friend Jerry decided to launch a home-made ice-cream parlour. They decided that college town Burlington would best suit their business as there wasn’t an ice-cream shop. The two developed their own style of ice-cream, which was very distinctive because Ben suffers anosmia, the loss of taste and smell, so he relied on the texture of ice-cream. Soon, their ice-cream shop became popular as they used fresh cream mixed with various flavours. More, the portions were huge, and apparently tasted wonderfully, so they had many customers. In 1980, they started packing their ice-creams and distributed them widely around the whole country. In 1988, the two were rewarded with being named the Small Business Persons of The Year, by the President Ronald Reagan. In 1996, Ben Cohen resigned from the CEO position, but remained actively involved in the business until 2000, when Ben sold the company to the Unilever conglomerate for $325 million, which considerably increased the total size of Ben Cohen’s net worth. Since 2000, he has served as a member of the advisory board of the company. It is worth mentioning that Cohen was named as a Leader in Pioneering Socially Responsible businesses by the New York Open Centre in 2000.
Finally, in the personal life of the businessman, he is married to Cindy, a psychologist, and the two have a daughter, Aretha who was born in 1990.
Ben Cohen has launched Ben & Jerry’s Foundation which is supported getting 7.5% of Ben & Jerry’s revenues. The Foundation focuses on engaging Ben & Jerry’s employees in social change work and philanthropy. The Foundation supports social justice, grassroots organizations and through various grants supports well being of Vermonters.
Additionally, Cohen is a supporter of Democratic candidates Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, and Barack Obama as well as Bernie Sanders. In 2016, the new flavour entitled “Bernie’s Yearning” has been produced to support the candidate. The same year, Ben participated in the Democracy Awakening protest, and was arrested.
