Tuesday, May 20th, 12pm Eastern Time, Zoom
Running a Business With a Heart
Ben & Jerry’s Foundation President, Jeff Furman & the owner of Via’s Cookies, Via Carpenter hail from wildly different backgrounds, yet they tread on common ground in their mutual passion for justice, equality, and putting smiles on faces through cookies and ice cream. See what they have learned and struggled with while combining social justice with business ventures.
About the speakers:
Via Carpenter is the energetic founder and owner of Via’s Cookies, a successful small business in Ithaca that made a commitment to merging business with social justice from the start. She began her baking 3 years ago as a way to pay her college expenses, and seeing other struggling BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students, she decided to share a portion of her profits to benefit them.
Today, while expanding her business, she finds time to make important contributions to her community. She mentors students from K-12 and older through youth programs, inspiring them to learn baking techniques and to think about starting businesses of their own. She serves on the Board of the Federations of Women’s Organizations, as a House Fellow at Cornell University, and recently received the Kirby Edmonds award for social justice.
With success in pitching and winning multiple business completions, Via has written and published case studies for college curriculum and given talks at Cornell, Ithaca College, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, among others. She has a compelling personal story about the importance of determination, focus, and giving-back in recognition of those who have helped her.
Jeff Furman spent over 40 years working at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. He helped the company from the beginning, was a long time member of the Board of Directors (chair for 8 years and still Emeritus), and continues with their Foundation, where he currently serves as President. Throughout those years, Jeff’s commitment to social and economic justice was influential in policies and decisions, as Ben & Jerry’s was a major contributor in creating the field of socially responsible businesses.
In addition, he’s been active in many local non-profit organizations in his home town of Ithaca, NY. He co-founded a dispute resolution center, a micro-finance training program, and served on the local school board. He’s currently an advisor to the Dorothy Cotton Institute, the Alliance of Families for Justice, on the Board of the Oakland Institute, and recently founded a new project, Rejoice the Vote, to work with Gen Z on expanding civic engagement. Jeff has spoken in South and Central America, Europe and across the U.S. on the power of business to impact social change.
With gratitude,
The Zen Peacemakers Team