Over the course of 7 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."