Many fans are curious about Ben Cohen's financial success in April 2026. Our team analyzed the latest data to provide a clear picture of their income.
What Is Ben Cohen's Net Worth and Salary?
In 1980, Ben & Jerry's began selling pints of their ice cream in grocery stores, and by 1987, the company was worth $30 million. The first franchised Ben & Jerry's shop opened in 1981 in Shelburne, Vermont, and today there are 615 Ben & Jerry's locations. The company is known for flavors such as Cherry Garcia, Half Baked, Chunky Monkey,Stephen Colbert'sAmeriCone Dream, and Phish Food, and the company uses ingredients that are non-GMO, fairtrade certified, and from Certified Humane cage-free farms.
In 2021, Cohen spoke to "Delish" about Ben & Jerry's dedication to activism, stating, "The traditional business model is screw the consumer, spend a bunch of money on advertising and PR to make yourself look good and go forward like that. Ben & Jerry's is just saying: 'Instead of spending a lot of money trying to make ourselves look good, let's just…be good.' We've got it so that people are buying ice cream and enjoying it more because they agree with the values of the people who make it. There's really no stronger relationship."
Ben Cohen was born Bennett Cohen on March 18, 1951, in New York City. He grew up in a Jewish household in Merrick, New York, with his mother, Frances, and father, Irving (an accountant), and he attended summer camp at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp in Connecticut. Ben met Jerry Greenfield in gym class in seventh grade, and they both attended Sanford H. Calhoun High School. As a senior, Cohen worked as an ice cream man. After graduating from high school, Ben enrolled at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, but he dropped out in 1972, and Greenfield later moved in with him. Cohen found work as a taxi driver, McDonald's cashier, ER clerk, and Pinkerton guard before taking a job as a craft teacher at the Highland Community School. Around this time, he began learning how to make ice cream, and in 1978, Ben and Jerry took an ice cream-making course at Pennsylvania State University.
For the next 25 years, Ben & Jerry both received a salary from Unilever, but neither was involved in the operations or management of the brand they founded. In September 2025, Jerry announced his resignation from the company, citing a complete breakdown in the values-driven independence they were promised when they sold the business in 2000.
Cohen and Greenfield opened Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream Parlor in May 1978. Their first location was in Burlington, Vermont, a college town that didn't have an ice cream shop. They initially wanted to open a bagel shop together, but after realizing that the equipment was too expensive, they decided to focus on ice cream instead. Cohen and Greenfield each put in $4,000 to start the business, and they got a $4,000 bank loan as well.
Ben Cohen is an American businessman, activist, and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $100 million. Ben Cohen earned his fortune as the co-founder of the Vermont-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry's. He co-founded the company withJerry Greenfield. Ben and Jerry were born four days apart in 1951 and have been best friends since the seventh grade. They started Ben & Jerry's with $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 bank loan. Since opening their first shop in the late '70s, Ben & Jerry's is now sold in stores around the world in 43 countries.Ben & Jerry's earns roughly $1 billion annually. In 2000, the company was purchased by the food giant Unilever for $326 million. At that point, annual earnings were $237 million.
In April 2000, Unilever acquired two brands on the same day. The first brand, for which they paid $2.3 billion, was Slim-Fast Foods Co., maker of various weight loss drinks. The second brand, for which they paid $326 million, was Ben & Jerry's 🙂
Cohen resigned as the company's Chief Executive Officer in 1996 and has not been actively involved with Ben & Jerry's since Unilever acquired it in 2000 for $326 million. He is involved with the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, a social justice organization that was established to "fund organizations here in Vermont and around the country that are working for progressive social change." In 1988, Ben and Jerry were named U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and in 2000, the New York Open Center honored Cohen for his "leadership in pioneering socially responsible business." Ben and Jerry have published the books "Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book" (1987) and "Ben & Jerry's Double Dip: How to Run a Values Led Business and Make Money Too" (1997).
Ultimately, Ben Cohen's financial journey is a testament to their success.
Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.
