Jerry Greenfield was born on 14 March 1951, in Williston, Vermont USA, and is a philanthropist and businessman, best known for being the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings, Inc. The company has around 200 franchised shops around the US, and all of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Jerry Greenfield? As of late-2016, sources estimate a net worth that is at $150 million, mostly earned through a successful career in business. Ben & Jerry’s reportedly earns more than $230 million annually, and are now part of the multinational food giant Unilever. All of these achievements have ensured the position of Jerry’s wealth.
Jerry Greenfield Net Worth $150 million
Jerry attended Merrick Avenue Junior High School, where he met future business partner Ben Cohen; they established a friendship and soon matriculated from Calhoun High School. The two separated in college with Jerry going to Oberlin College in 1969 – while studying there, he also worked part time as an ice cream scooper in the cafeteria.
After graduating in 1973, he tried to get into medical school twice but failed, and so he returned to New York and worked as a lab technician, while sharing an apartment with Cohen. In 1974, he tried his hand at medical school once again and then decided to move to North Carolina, but returned to New York after two years, this time living with Cohen while the two started sharing their ideas of starting a business. They opened a bagel shop, and then focused on ice cream because the equipment was cheaper. They took a correspondence course in ice cream making, and then set up their shop near a college town.
They eventually settled in Burlington, Vermont since all of the college towns already had ice cream shops. With a $4,000 loan they started renovating an old gas station, officially opening in 1978. They had success through the summer, but had difficulties during winter time.
In 1980, they started distributing their ice cream through restaurants and then moved to a larger area to start packaging ice cream.
Greenfield left the company for a while to support his future wife in Arizona, but returned to the company in 1985. The company’s success continued to grow, and even prompted battles against other large ice cream companies, including problems with Haagen-Dazs and the parent company Pillsbury, when Pillsbury tried to limit their production in Boston twice which prompted lawsuits against the latter.
In 2000, the company was bought by Unilever, and although they still work at the company, they no longer have large responsibilities.
For his personal life, it is known that Jerry married Elizabeth Skarie in 1987 and they have a son. They reside in Burlington, Vermont. Greenfield was once arrested, while participating in a Democracy Awakening protest in Washington DC. Aside from these, Greenfield claims that he knows how to eat fire and even does it on some rare occasions.
