diff --git a/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/chaos/monkies/PolicyBasedChaosMonkey.java b/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/chaos/monkies/PolicyBasedChaosMonkey.java
index dc2ac13c396..e3e2e49ac26 100644
--- a/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/chaos/monkies/PolicyBasedChaosMonkey.java
+++ b/hbase-it/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/chaos/monkies/PolicyBasedChaosMonkey.java
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/**
+/*
  * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
  * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
  * distributed with this work for additional information
@@ -22,14 +22,18 @@ import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Properties;
-
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.IntegrationTestingUtility;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.chaos.policies.Policy;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Pair;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.common.util.concurrent.ThreadFactoryBuilder;
 
 /**
  * Chaos monkey that given multiple policies will run actions against the cluster.
@@ -38,7 +42,6 @@ public class PolicyBasedChaosMonkey extends ChaosMonkey {
 
   private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(PolicyBasedChaosMonkey.class);
   private static final long ONE_SEC = 1000;
-  private static final long FIVE_SEC = 5 * ONE_SEC;
   private static final long ONE_MIN = 60 * ONE_SEC;
 
   public static final long TIMEOUT = ONE_MIN;
@@ -46,6 +49,9 @@ public class PolicyBasedChaosMonkey extends ChaosMonkey {
   final IntegrationTestingUtility util;
   final Properties monkeyProps;
 
+  private final Policy[] policies;
+  private final ExecutorService monkeyThreadPool;
+
   /**
    * Construct a new ChaosMonkey
    * @param util the HBaseIntegrationTestingUtility already configured
@@ -60,19 +66,30 @@ public class PolicyBasedChaosMonkey extends ChaosMonkey {
   }
 
   public PolicyBasedChaosMonkey(Properties monkeyProps, IntegrationTestingUtility util,
-    Policy... policies) {
-    this.monkeyProps = monkeyProps;
-    this.util = util;
-    this.policies = policies;
+    Collection<Policy> policies) {
+    this(monkeyProps, util, policies.toArray(new Policy[0]));
   }
 
   public PolicyBasedChaosMonkey(Properties monkeyProps, IntegrationTestingUtility util,
-    Collection<Policy> policies) {
+    Policy... policies) {
     this.monkeyProps = monkeyProps;
-    this.util = util;
-    this.policies = policies.toArray(new Policy[policies.size()]);
+    this.util = Objects.requireNonNull(util);
+    this.policies = Objects.requireNonNull(policies);
+    if (policies.length == 0) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("policies may not be empty");
+    }
+    this.monkeyThreadPool = buildMonkeyThreadPool(policies.length);
   }
 
+  private static ExecutorService buildMonkeyThreadPool(final int size) {
+    return Executors.newFixedThreadPool(size, new ThreadFactoryBuilder()
+      .setDaemon(false)
+      .setNameFormat("ChaosMonkey-%d")
+      .setUncaughtExceptionHandler((t, e) -> {
+        throw new RuntimeException(e);
+      })
+      .build());
+  }
 
   /** Selects a random item from the given items */
   public static <T> T selectRandomItem(T[] items) {
@@ -114,27 +131,20 @@ public class PolicyBasedChaosMonkey extends ChaosMonkey {
     return originalItems.subList(startIndex, startIndex + selectedNumber);
   }
 
-  private Policy[] policies;
-  private Thread[] monkeyThreads;
-
   @Override
   public void start() throws Exception {
-    monkeyThreads = new Thread[policies.length];
-    Policy.PolicyContext context = new Policy.PolicyContext(monkeyProps, this.util);
-    for (int i=0; i<policies.length; i++) {
-      policies[i].init(context);
-      Thread monkeyThread = new Thread(policies[i], "ChaosMonkey");
-      monkeyThread.start();
-      monkeyThreads[i] = monkeyThread;
+    final Policy.PolicyContext context = new Policy.PolicyContext(monkeyProps, util);
+    for (final Policy policy : policies) {
+      policy.init(context);
+      monkeyThreadPool.execute(policy);
     }
   }
 
   @Override
   public void stop(String why) {
-    if (policies == null) {
-      return;
-    }
-
+    // stop accepting new work (shouldn't be any with a fixed-size pool)
+    monkeyThreadPool.shutdown();
+    // notify all executing policies that it's time to halt.
     for (Policy policy : policies) {
       policy.stop(why);
     }
@@ -142,22 +152,12 @@ public class PolicyBasedChaosMonkey extends ChaosMonkey {
 
   @Override
   public boolean isStopped() {
-    return policies[0].isStopped();
+    return monkeyThreadPool.isTerminated();
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Wait for ChaosMonkey to stop.
-   * @throws InterruptedException
-   */
   @Override
   public void waitForStop() throws InterruptedException {
-    if (monkeyThreads == null) {
-      return;
-    }
-    for (Thread monkeyThread : monkeyThreads) {
-      // TODO: bound the wait time per policy
-      monkeyThread.join();
-    }
+    monkeyThreadPool.awaitTermination(1, TimeUnit.MINUTES);
   }
 
   @Override