Bennett Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1951. His childhood memories include watching his father put away an entire half gallon of ice cream at the dinner table, eating directly from the carton with a spoon or scoop. Ben's first professional contact with ice cream came in his senior year of high school, when he worked as an "ice cream man", driving a truck, ringing bells, and selling ice cream cones to kids. After studying pottery and jewelry making in college, Ben became a craft teacher in addition to working as the school cook; it was here that he began experimenting with ice-cream. Jerry Greenfield was also born in Brooklyn, in fact just four days before his partner; Ben. Jerry first met Ben in junior high school. Throughout their youth, they maintained a strong friendship, becoming roommates in Manhattan after college and later business partners in Vermont. Like Ben, Jerry was exposed to the world of ice cream at an early age, when he took a job as a scooper in the college cafeteria. After graduating from Obelin College, Jerry applied to medical school but wasn't accepted. In the meantime, he worked as a lab technician, living with Ben in Manhattan and then applied for a second time to medical school. After being rejected for a second time, Jerry moved to North Carolina with his wife to be and returned to his former profession, a lab technician. In 1977 Ben and Jerry decided to go into the food business together. The two settled on ice cream as opposed to bagels due to the expensive machinery involved. They chose Burlington, Vermont as the second best place to start their ice cream venture, mostly clue to the fact that it was a great college town in desperate need of an ice-cream parlor, and because their first choice, Saratoga Springs, New York, already had an ice cream parlor. Their ice cream parlor opened for business in May, 1978 in a renovated gas station on a busy street corner in Burlington, Vermont. Ben & Jerry's soon became known throughout Vermont as much for its rich, unusual flavors, as for their community-oriented approach to business, where good will, good times and ice cream were shared through a variety of events, such as an Autumn Fall Down Festival, a free outdoor movie festival, and a celebration of a 1-year business anniversary with a Free Cone Day (an anniversary celebration still observed, now with free cones served all clay at every Ben& Jerry's scoop shop nationwide. Ben and Jerry have been recognized for fostering their company's commitment to social responsibility by the Council on Economic Priorities, which awarded them the Corporate Giving award in 1988 for donating 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to the nonprofit organizations through Ben & Jerry ' s Foundation, and by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which named them U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year in 1988 in a White House ceremony hosted by President Reagan. Ben is ilso the Founder of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, which mobilizes business leaders ' expertise to redirect U.8. federal budget priorities away from Cold War military spending levels and toward meeting basic human needs. And to top it all off, they are also co-authors of two books: Ben & Jerry 's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book and Double Dip- Lead with Your Values and Make Money Too. The Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities (BLSP) Information Fund is an organization of CEO's, corporate directors, senior executives and business owners from across America. It was founded by Ben Cohen, Chairman of Ben & Jerry ' s, and quickly attracted top executives of "household name " companies like Hasbro, Phillips Van Heusen, Stride Rite and Newman's Own. BLSP is waging a three-to-four year multi-million dollar campaign to inform the public about the need to shift federal budget spending priorities away from Cold War-era military spending towards investments in our people and our communities. BLSP works to inform the general public that the $280 billion military budget could be reduced by 15%, thereby saving $40 billion annually and shifting those resources to vitally needed domestic investments with no additional cost to the taxpayer. BLSP was launched in June of 1996 with a full-page advertisement in the New York Times signed by 26 leading business executives, and now has over 400 members from coast to coast. Their business campaign is a sophisticated marketing and public relations effort utilizing the credibility of our members as well as their "not the usual suspects" news hook. Unlike so many other efforts to reap the "peace dividend" , reduce the military budget and/or change national priorities, the effort is of sufficient scale to make a significant difference. BLSP' s credibility is enhanced by the support of distinguished retired generals, admirals and defense planners from Republican and Democratic administrations who have urged cuts in American military spending of $40 billion to $100 billion (Business Ledgers conservatively chose the lower figure as our goal). In 1997 BLSP was part of a coalition that helped educate the public about the case against funding additional B-2 bombers. Earlier this year, BLSP highlighted the case against NATO expansion with a major public relations and organizing effort. For further information about Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, contact: Gant' J. Ferdman 130 William Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10038 Tel. (212) 964-1109