Row deepens as three board members removed
Three members of Ben & Jerry’s independent board will no longer be able to serve in their respective roles after the ice cream company introduced a new set of management practices.
These include a nine-year limit determined by board members’ terms. Mayor Anuradha Mittal, who had previously said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is also among those affected.
The move was criticized by company co-founder Ben Cohen, who called it “a blatant power grab designed to strip the board of directors of its legal authority and independence.”
His remarks are the latest in a long-running dispute between Ben and Jerry’s and its owner over the Cherry Garcia maker’s social activism and the continued independence of its board of directors.
The BBC understands that Ms Mittal will leave the company immediately, while board members Mr Dodson and Ms Henderson will leave at the end of this year.
“Anuradha Mittal, Daryn Dodson and Jennifer Henderson have served this company with integrity and courage. Over many years, they have helped the board make bold, often difficult decisions to support Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” Mr. Cohen said.
Ben & Jerry’s said the move aims to “preserve and enhance the brand’s historic social mission and preserve its core integrity.”
The Vermont-based firm is now owned by The Magnum Ice Cream Company, with Unilever creating the world’s largest independent ice cream maker last week.
A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wants to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry’s “strong, non-partisan, values-based position in the world.”
But Mr Cohen told the BBC that Ben & Jerry’s would disappear as a brand if it remained with Magnum.
Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal that allowed it to have an independent board of directors and the right to make decisions related to its social mission.
Since the sale, there has been deepening conflict between the Vermont-based brand and Unilever, which has now been handed over to Magnum.
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s refused to sell its products in Israeli-occupied territories, resulting in the Israeli operation being sold by Unilever to a local licensee.
Co-founder Jerry Greenfield left Ben & Jerry’s in September after nearly half a century at the company, deepening the dispute with parent company Unilever.
In a letter shared by Mr. Cohen on social media, Mr. Greenfield said Ben & Jerry’s had lost its independence after Unilever stopped its social activism.
