Ben & Jerry’s founder lashes out against parent Magnum’s board changes

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen has slammed parent Magnum Ice Cream Company, saying it is “destroying” the brand, in an interview with CNBC.

The world’s largest standalone ice cream business, Magnum, is only a week old but has already had a lifetime of corporate drama.

Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jochanan Senf, appointed by Unilever, has said changes to the terms of the board, including a nine-year term limit, setting a board cadence with “protocols on engagement” and an obligation to comply with Magnum’s code of business integrity, would strengthen governance and transparency. 

Cohen, however, said statements made by Magnum about the governance changes were “Orwellian.”

“They said that they’re enhancing the social mission when they’re actually destroying it. They said that they’re future-proofing the Board of Directors when they’re actually dismantling it,” Cohen told CNBC. “It’s another desperate power grab.”

By Monday, three directors had been ousted from the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s, in a new twist to the conflict between the brand named after its well-known founders and its parent company over the brand’s social mission. It’s a row that newly listed Magnum inherited from consumer giant Unilever when it officially spun off into an independent company last week.

Ben & Jerry’s latest move to change its board governance was intended “to preserve and enhance the brand’s historical social mission and safeguard its essential integrity,” Ben & Jerry’s said in a press release.

Chair Anuradha Mittal — one of the board members notified of their ineligibility — was told she “no longer meets the criteria to serve” as a member of the board following “internal investigations,” the company said, without giving further details.

“Initially, they were trying to get rid of the chairman of the [independent] board, by making these unfounded allegations that she’s ‘not fit to serve’. They weren’t able to substantiate that, so now they’re saying, well, she served for too long,” Cohen said. “It’s arbitrary, and it’s illegal.”

Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal that allowed the brand to maintain an independent board as well as the right to make decisions on its social mission. Since 2021, however, growing discontent by the board as well as founders Cohen and Jerry Greenfield over what they call attempts to “silence” the social mission.

Unilever, and now Magnum, retains primary responsibility for all matters not relating to the social mission or matters expressly delegated to the Ben & Jerry’s board, including financial and operational aspects.

CNBC has reached out to Magnum…