A longtime Unilever executive who’s originally from Norway has been tapped to lead the corporation’s popular, socially conscious ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s.
Jostein Solheim left Norway around 20 years ago and joined Unilever in the early 1990s, after studies at the London School of Economics. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that he’s spent the past 14 years living and working in five different countries for Unilever’s various ice cream brands.
He most recently has been living in New Jersey but now will relocate with his family to Burlington, Vermont, where Ben & Jerry’s was founded by two socially conscious young men often referred to as “hippies.” Their ice cream, with flavours like “Cherry Garcia” and “Chunky Monkey,” has been a big hit but was only recently made available in Norway.
Solheim said Unilever would keep Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Vermont, which he told the local newspaper Burlington Free Press reminded him of Norway. “It’s about the closest you can come to Norway, so it feels like home,” he said.
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