Who

Shanks is the big cheese at the Penguin Group, the second-largest book publishing company in the U.S.

Backstory

Shanks started out in publishing working for his dad's book distribution firm, then had early-career gigs in the circulation departments of the Village Voice and New York. He joined the Penguin sales department in 1978 and rose to president of the company's Berkley Putnam division in 1991, before being named chief operating officer of Putnam in 1997. When his long-time mentor Phyliss Grann departed the company in 2001, Shanks took over as CEO of the Penguin Group. Penguin is owned by the British media conglomerate Pearson; imprints that fall under the Penguin umbrella include Berkley Books, Dutton, Riverhead Books, Viking, and, of course, Penguin itself.

Of note

On Shanks' watch, Penguin and its affiliated imprints have published books by Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts, Clive Cussler, John Berendt, Michael Pollan, Sue Grafton, Al Gore, Melissa Bank, Maureen Dowd, and Kurt Vonnegut. Staffers who work under Shanks include Riverhead publisher Geoff Kloske, Riverhead executive editor Sean McDonald (of James Frey scandal fame), Viking publisher Paul Slovak and Penguin Press chief Ann Godoff, who was hired by Shanks after getting fired by Random House CEO Peter Olson in 2003.

True story

Getting mixed up in top-secret spy business isn't usually in a publishing exec's job description, but Shanks supposedly found himself on the receiving end of threatening emails in 2006 after he published Larry J. Kolb's America at Night, an account of politics, terrorism, and espionage.

Personal

Shanks and his wife, Elizabeth, have two grown daughters, Jennifer and Jessica. In 2001, they purchased a home on Long Island for $960,000.