The chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board said she has no plans to resign as Unilever pressures her ahead of Monday’s public spinoff of its Magnum ice cream division, which will include the Vermont-based brand.

Magnum, a longtime division of the consumer goods conglomerate, said last month that the chair, Anuradha Mittal, “no longer meets the criteria” to serve after internal investigations, without providing further details.

Magnum will list publicly on Euronext on Monday and is inheriting a deepening corporate feud between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s, stemming from the politically progressive brand’s stance on Israel and the Palestinian territories.

An audit of the separate Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, a US-based non-profit where Mittal is also a trustee, found deficiencies in financial controls and governance. Mittal has been the chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board since 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile, and a trustee of the foundation since 2012, according to its website.

“The so-called audit of the foundation was a manufactured inquiry — engineered to attempt to discredit me,” Mittal said in her statement, saying she will not resign.........

© The Times of Israel