Unilever has appointed a brand new CEO to steer Ben & Jerry’s as its battle over the ice cream model’s lefty politics heats up, in response to a report Friday.
Jochanan Senf, a Dutch Unilever govt who beforehand managed Ben & Jerry’s Europe enterprise, will begin within the new position this month after the British mother or father firm abruptly axed former CEO David Stever, in response to the Wall Road Journal.
In a courtroom submitting in March, Ben & Jerry’s unbiased board — which manages the Vermont-based firm’s social activism and mission — had accused Unilever of firing Stever, who began as a tour information for the model’s Waterbury manufacturing facility in 1988.
The board — which was created and given energy over administration as a stipulation within the acquisition settlement when Unilever took over the corporate in 2000 — was not allowed to interview candidates to exchange Stever, a supply conversant in the matter informed the Journal.
The board additionally was excluded from the appointment course of over the board’s political activism – together with assist for anti-Trump insurance policies and protests towards Israel’s dealing with of the warfare in Gaza, in response to the report that cited unnamed sources.
“Any claims that the Independent Board was excluded from the search process are simply incorrect – they have been offered to participate in good faith and to share their views, but declined to do so,” a spokesperson for the Magnum Ice Cream Firm informed The Submit in an announcement.
Ben & Jerry’s didn’t instantly reply to The Submit’s requests for remark.
The corporate “took every step to collaborate in good faith” with the board all through the appointment course of, Peter ter Kulve, who runs Unilever’s ice cream unit, wrote in a memo to employees on Thursday, in response to the Journal.
Unilever inspired members of the board’s appointment committee to interview candidates and share suggestions, he stated.
“The response from the Independent Board was to decline our requests, delay our timing and/or threaten litigation.”
Unilever’s firing of Stever broke its merger settlement with Ben & Jerry’s, which “protects Ben & Jerry’s interest by precluding the unilateral removal of its CEO,” in response to the grievance filed in March.
The mother or father firm responded that it has the authority to nominate a brand new chief govt and that it might solely accomplish that after talking with the board.
Unilever is planning to spin off its ice cream unit this 12 months, renamed the Magnum Ice Cream Firm. It will likely be listed within the Netherlands as a separate firm.
Earlier this 12 months, when it introduced the spin off, Unilever made clear it has no intention of promoting Ben & Jerry’s – regardless of a bid from its liberal founders.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, childhood associates from Lengthy Island, NY, created the corporate – recognized for funky flavors like Chunky Monkey and Phish Meals – in 1978. It later offered the model to Unilever for $326 million.
