Name: Enrique Ernesto Shaw
Status: Venerable Servant of God
Feast Day: NA
Life: 1921 - 1962
Join me today as we encounter Enrique Ernesto Shaw, the executive and business leader whose deeply Catholic approach to work made him the boss you wish you had.
Enrique Ernesto Shaw was born in Argentina in 1921, son of Sara Tornquist and Alejandro Shaw. His background, though, was European: Scottish and French. Young Enrique’s mother, Sara, died in 1925, when he was still a very young child. She left instructions that her son was to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith, instructions which her husband Alejandro would honour even as he struggled with faith himself. His father came from a line of Scottish sailors. From a young age, Enrique Shaw felt called to join the navy.
In 1936, still a young man, Enrique Shaw entered the naval academy. At this time, Shaw was living with family, his father being often away on business. Testing himself against the other boys in the Naval Academy, Shaw discovered what many ambitious boys find when they first get out into the world. He didn’t measure up. Shaw stuttered. He got bullied. He wasn’t good at sports. But what set Shaw apart from other young men was the strength of his resolve. He used his free time to practice the things he wasn’t good at. He got stronger. He became a leader. Later in his life, Shaw would describe the qualities of a leader. “[He] is entitled to lead who has guts, sharp judgment, and, above all, he who has learned a lot.”