Ben Van Leeuwen
Co-founder & CEO
Ben Van Leeuwen is co-founder and CEO of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which began as a yellow scoop truck on the streets of NYC in 2008 with a mission to make good ice cream from good ingredients that makes you feel good.
The summer before his senior year of high school, Ben was in need of a job. An advertisement for a gig driving a Good Humor ice cream truck caught his eye, and he enlisted the help of his older brother Pete, to establish a (mini) ice cream empire in their hometown of Greenwich, CT selling frozen treats to locals. After a summer of hard work, Ben used those savings to travel through Europe and Southeast Asia for a year before college. It was during these travels that he became enamored with the purity of unadulterated, quality foods, the unique ingredients he discovered from country to country around the world, and the happiness that can be derived from tasting new and delicious flavors.
Post-graduation, Ben was on his way out of an interview at a financial services company when a chance encounter with a Mister Softee ice cream truck sparked an idea — to create the world’s best ice cream using only the purest, highest quality ingredients, effectively reimagining the ice cream truck experience for the modern consumer. Van Leeuwen began from these humble roots, and has since grown to a true ice cream empire.
