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Amid an ongoing dispute between Ben & Jerry’s and its parent group The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), three of the ice cream brand’s independent board members are set to be removed.

The latest development comes as part of a set of governance changes announced by Ben & Jerry’s yesterday (15 December 2025).

TMICC said these changes aim to ‘align principles and policies’ across the business, reaffirm the responsibilities of the board and ‘enhance the brand’s historical social mission and safeguard its integrity’.

This will include establishing a nine-year term limit for board members, with any director who has served longer than this period becoming ineligible for annual re-election in 2026.

TMICC confirmed that three directors in total have been notified of their ineligibility to serve on the board. This includes chair Anuradha Mittal, who joined the board in 2007 and has served as chair since 2018.

Last month, it was revealed that TMICC said Mittal “no longer meets the criteria” to serve, following an internal investigation conducted by external advisors.

This came amid the longstanding row between Ben & Jerry’s’ co-founders and its parent company, with the dispute centering around the brand’s social mission.

Ben & Jerry’s, founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1978, was acquired by Unilever for $326 million in 2000. It is now owned by Unilever’s newly spun-off ice cream business, TMICC, which completed its demerger from the food and beverage giant on 6 December 2025.

The co-founders have publicly spoken out against Unilever/TMICC in recent years, accusing the parent group of silencing their stance on social issues despite a merger agreement that emphasised the co-founders’ independence to pursue their values and social mission.

The relationship has become increasingly strained since 2021, when Ben & Jerry’s refused to sell products in Israeli-occupied territories. Unilever then sold the brand’s Israeli operations to a local licensee.

Co-founder Jerry Greenfield recently announced his resignation from the brand as a result of the ongoing rift, which has also seen the departure of former CEO David Stever – a move the co-founders said was due to his commitment to the brand’s values.

According to BBC News, co-founder Cohen described the latest move to remove Mittal and two other board members, Daryn Dodson and Jennifer Henderson, as a “blatant power grab designed to strip the board of legal authority and independence”.

“Anuradha Mittal, Daryn Dodson and Jennifer Henderson have served this company with integrity and courage. Over many years, they helped the board make bold, often difficult decisions to uphold Ben & Jerry's social mission,” he added.

Commenting on the changes, Jochanan Senf, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s, said: “The Ben & Jerry's merger agreement and the role of the board is unique in the business world, and it's crucial to the long-term future of the Ben & Jerry's three-part mission”.

He added: “That's why today, we are strengthening governance, increasing transparency and committing ourselves to greater accountability. These improvements matter because they will support us in our journey to become even more impactful and to drive progressive change for years to come.”