Jersey City, N.J. – Co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., Jerry Greenfield, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Saint Peter’s College 39th Annual Regents Business Symposium on Tuesday, November 2 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson. Since its inception, the forum has inspired and educated audiences of all ages, professions and industries regarding business trends, challenges and best practices. This year’s theme is Going Green, Going Global: The Costs and Benefits to Business; other speakers addressing the theme are Ralph LaRossa, president and COO of PSE&G, Dawn Murray, director of United States environmental sustainability for ING, and William Gutsch Jr., Ph.D. ’67, distinguished professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Peter’s College.
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. and its co-founders, Greenfield and Ben Cohen, became a model for business success. Both men have been praised for their commitment to social responsibility and in 1988, the Council on Economic Priorities presented them with the Corporate Giving Award for donating 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to nonprofit organizations through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. In addition, that same year, the United States Small Business Administration named Greenfield and Cohen U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year. The co-founders are authors of the best seller, Ben & Jerry’s Double- Dip: Lead with Your Values and Make Money, Too, a guide for creating socially responsible business models.
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Greenfield graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Biology. Instead of medical school, he and his friend Cohen pursued their lifelong dream of running a food business together, taking their chances on the ever popular ice cream. Following some initial research and a $5.00 correspondence course in making ice cream, the two opened the doors to Ben & Jerry’s Homemade ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont in May of 1978. The Company’s unique flavors quickly won over consumers and turned a retail store front into a $300 million ice cream business.
LaRossa began his career at the largest electric and gas utility in New Jersey as an associate engineer, advancing his way through several management positions in the utility’s gas and electric operations before he was named president and COO in 2006. In 1998, he was honored with Gas Industry Magazine’s Outstanding Manager of the Year Award. An alumnus of Stevens Institute of Technology, LaRossa serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including the American Gas Association (AGA), New Jersey Utilities Association (NJUA) and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).
Murray has served as a champion of green initiatives at ING both in the United States and globally. Her leadership in the area of sustainability includes developing the company’s Orange Goes Green efforts and implementing its multi-pronged strategy: increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumption; investing in green energy; reducing/reusing/recycling; and creating awareness programs. Murray helped establish the Orange Goes Green teams at all of ING’s sites in the United States. The teams are a volunteer-led initiative in which employees develop awareness programs for their colleagues on green living at work and at home and organize volunteer activities in the community. ING recently selected Murray to lead the newly created U.S. Green Council, which focuses on helping United States business lines understand the benefits of implementing strategies that support environmental sustainability.
Dr. Gutsch serves as co-director of the Practical Applications of Research in Science Education (PARSE) Institute and is president-elect of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Board of Directors. In addition, he is currently working as a writer, producer and director of television documentaries for NASA. Dr. Gutsch formerly served as chairman of the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium, president and CEO of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, syndicated columnist for Gannett newspapers, science editor for WABC-TV and science correspondent for ABC News. He has also written and appeared in programs for PBS, NBC, CNN, The Learning Channel and NASA-TV.
Admission is $85 for the public, $70 for alumni and $35 for young alumni. For more information, please visit www.spc.edu/businesssymposium or contact Jenny Campbell at (201) 761-6112 or jcampbell1@spc.edu.
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