Jerry Greenfield is a businessman and philanthropist best known for co-founding the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's with his business partner Ben Cohen. The duo is celebrated for integrating corporate social responsibility into their business model.

Raised on Long Island in a Jewish family, Greenfield studied pre-medicine at Oberlin College, graduating in 1973. After not gaining admission to medical school, he worked as a lab technician while reapplying, ultimately pivoting to a new career path. In the summer of 1977, while living with Cohen in Saratoga Springs, New York, the pair initially considered opening a bagel shop but opted for an ice cream store due to lower start-up costs. They completed a five-dollar correspondence course in ice-cream making, leading to the opening of their first store in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978. They selected Burlington for its untapped ice cream market, even though their original plan was to open in a warmer college town.

In 2000, Greenfield and Cohen sold Ben & Jerry's to Unilever for $325 million, but they remained involved in the company. Greenfield serves as the President of the Trustees for the Ben and Jerry Foundation and holds a position on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities.

Greenfield co-authored the 1997 bestseller "Ben & Jerry’s Double-Dip: How to Run a Values Led Business and Make Money Too" with Cohen, contributing a practical guide to values-led business and showcasing the influence of socially conscious corporations.

Greenfield and Cohen's dedication to social responsibility has been recognized multiple times, including receiving the Corporate Giving Award in 1988 from the Council on Economic Priorities for donating 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to non-profit organizations through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. Additionally, they were named U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year in 1988 by the U.S. Small Business Administration during a ceremony at the White House with President Reagan.

Greenfield and Cohen are also known for their political activism, particularly their support for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

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