John A. Shaw - Professional Background

Professional Background

Shaw graduated from high school at Kent School in 1957. He then received a B.A. from Williams College, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall, as well as a bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of Magdalene College. He has taught international security studies at Cambridge University, Williams College, Georgetown University, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

During his professorship at Williams College, he invested much of his own time and money to found the Williams College men's rowing team, despite heavy resistance from the administration at the time. In recognition of Shaw's perseverance, one of the shells in the John A. Shaw Boathouse is named Pride and Persistence. Additionally, an award bearing his name is given out each year to a male rower who epitomizes his will to keep fighting in the face of adversity.

In 1975 he was confirmed by the Senate as Inspector General of Foreign Assistance and Assistant Secretary of State, responsible for the oversight of all U.S. Foreign Military Sales, U.S. AID, the Peace Corps, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank. From 1986-88 he served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator of Agency for International Development. From 1989-91 he served as Associate Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Commerce, and oversaw a major effort to reform the Bureau of Export Administration. In 1992 he was nominated as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, receiving a recess appointment when the revised Export Administration Act was vetoed.

From 1978-80, Mr. Shaw returned to the private sector as a Vice President of Booz Allen & Hamilton International, overseeing the development, organization and management of two new industrial cities, Jubail and Yanbu, in Saudi Arabia. These cities constituted the largest development project in the world. He worked for several management consulting companies, the St. Phalle International Group and the Cambridge Consulting Group, overseeing international business development projects. From 1980-84 he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, specializing in Middle Eastern and International Business Affairs, and was Vice President for Washington Operations for the Hudson Institute, then overseeing the Center for Naval Analyses, from 1985-86.