Over the course of seven decades Ralph Nader has been Corporate America's fiercest critic. Supreme Court Justice William Powell singled out Nader in his infamous memo as the "single most effective antagonist of American business . . . [the] target of his hatred . . . is corporate power."

But now, in a book that will surprise both his fans and critics, Nader profiles a small group of CEOs who he believes performed extraordinarily well as business leaders and civic reformers, some well-known, some not, who should be celebrated as exceptions whose life and career should be a course of emulation and inspiration for students of business, executives, and the wider citizenry.

This select group of mavericks and iconoclasts—which includes The Body Shop's Anita Roddick, Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard, Vanguard's John Bogle, and Busboys and Poets' Andy Shallal—give us, Nader writes, "a sense of what might have been and what still could be if business were rigorously framed as a process that was not only about making money and selling things but improving our social and natural world."