[2] Shaw was an alumnus of the Dominica Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford.
[1] He was a career civil servant, rising to the post of Cabinet Secretary in 1977, and retiring in 1990.
Shaw was elected to a five-year term as President by the House of Assembly on 2 October 1998, as the candidate of the United Workers' Party (UWP).
He took office on October 6, 1998,[3] following the expiration of President Crispin Sorhaindo's single five-year term.
Shaw left office on 1 October 2003, and was succeeded by Nicholas Liverpool.