John A. Shaw

John Arthur "Jack" Shaw (July 1, 1939 – April 5, 2020) was an American civil servant who held positions under several presidents: Senior Staff under Richard Nixon, White House liaison under Gerald Ford, and in the State Department under Ronald Reagan. Additionally, President George H. W. Bush gave him a recess appointment as Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

His last presidential appointment was as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security, under George W. Bush. Shaw was accused of improper advocacy for private contracts, which led to his dismissal, but a subsequent FBI investigation resulted in no charges against him.

Shaw returned to the private sector and was president and CEO of the American Overseas Clinics Corporation.

Early life, education, and professorships Shaw was born into a prominent Philadelphia political family, and was raised in the suburbs by an aunt and uncle due to the early death of his parents. Shaw graduated from Kent School in Connecticut in 1957. He then received a B.A. from Williams College in 1962, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall, as well as a Masters (1967), and Ph.D. (1976) 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 his own time and money to found the Williams College men's rowing team, despite some resistance from the Williams faculty and 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, a Silver Goblet bearing his name is given out each year to a male rower who epitomizes his will to keep fighting in the face of adversity. Thanks to Shaw's efforts in the early 1970s Williams has become a minor US rowing power, with the men winning successive championships and the women winning seven successive NCAA Division III Rowing Championships. Shaw was vice president for Washington Operations for the Hudson Institute, then overseeing the Center for Naval Analyses, from 1985 to 1986.

Reagan and G.H.W. Bush administrations From 1986 to 1988 under President Reagan he served as senior advisor to the Administrator of Agency for International Development. From 1989 to 1991 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.

On September 13, 1991, he was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, replacing Quincy Mellon Crosby. On February 18, 2006, Shaw told a conference at The Intelligence Summit in Alexandria, Virginia:

The short answer to that question of where the W.M.D. Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon. ... They were moved by Russian units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence.

Shaw alleged that Evgeny Primakov flew to Baghdad in December, 2002 to arrange the shipments, which Primakov denied.

Charges of corruption fabricated and disproven Shaw made several authorized trips to Iraq, although a former official with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) alleged to the L.A. Times that Shaw gained unauthorized access to one site: the port of Umm al Qasr. Shaw urged U.S. officials to hire a company called Nana Pacific, owned by Alaskan natives and therefore eligible for no-bid contracts. Third, Shaw sought to have the Iraqi communications minister replaced with Sami al-Majoun, his deputy minister, who was in the Liberty Mobile consortium.

Sudnick requested an investigation of Shaw's conduct. Shaw then suggested that Sudnick resign, and opposed Sudnick at the Pentagon. Sudnick was fired in April 2004, and subsequently sued Shaw and the Department of Defense for allegedly suggesting to third parties that Sudnick was under investigation for bribery. In December 2004, Shaw was fired. In 2005, the FBI declined to charge Shaw, adding that it vigorously investigates corruption allegations.

Subsequent private sector career Shaw returned to the Cambridge Consulting Group, serving as its president. In that capacity, he has been involved with technology consulting for the Defense Department. Since 2007, he has also been an advisory board member at NeXplore Corporation, a software company that develops Internet properties and applications primarily in the United States. with whom he had two children. His second wife and widow is Helen Anderson Shaw. Shaw resided in suburban Chevy Chase, MD Washington, D.C. He was a national leader in St. Anthony Hall ( AKA Delta Psi fraternity ) for decades. Shaw died on April 5, 2020, at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.