4/1/98
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., will provide "An Evening of Social Responsibility, Radical Business Philosophy and Free Dessert For All" at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, at Grover Center on the Athens campus of Ohio University.
Starting in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vt., Cohen and Greenfield parlayed a $12,000 investment into a $160 million publicly held ice cream empire 20 years later by making social responsibility and creative management strengths instead of weaknesses.
Their presentation delivers a rousing tribute to America's entrepreneurial spirit, full of hilarious anecdotes and radical business philosophy behind one of the most talked-about, and least conventional, success stories in American business. Ben & Jerry's ice cream will be provided free to the audience.
The Council on Economic Priorities awarded the pair the Corporate Giving Award in 1988 for donating 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to non-profit organizations through the Ben & Jerry's Foundation. The U.S. Small Business Administration named them U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year in a 1988 White House ceremony hosted by President Reagan.
The Kennedy Lecture is free and open to the public, but unlike most Kennedy Lectures, tickets must be picked up in advance at the Haning Hall Box Office noon to 4 p.m. weekdays. Tickets will be available until the 1,800 tickets are gone. There are no advance reservations, and only two tickets per person will be distributed. No tickets will be available at Grover the night of the lecture.