OVMAE Spotlight Series: Ryan Shaw

After a 20-year career that began at United States Military Academy at West Point and carried through combat deployments, strategic advisory roles and academic leadership, Ryan Shaw’s path is defined by navigating a series of unexpected turns that ultimately reinforced a consistent theme. Leadership is about people, and service only has meaning when it connects to something larger than yourself.

Shaw’s entry into the military was unconventional from the start. He did not attend West Point because he was certain he wanted a military career. In fact, he entered the Army because he wanted to attend West Point. Commissioned in 1999, he served until 2019, ultimately choosing to stay in until, as he put it, “it wasn’t fun anymore,” which took two decades. His early career aspirations included Special Forces, but a neck injury during training changed that trajectory.
Instead of leaving, he adapted, eventually finding himself in armor and cavalry units, where he discovered a better fit for his interests and strengths.

That shift proved formative. Serving in cavalry and armor units in places like Fort Polk and later deploying to Iraq’s Anbar Province, Shaw developed a leadership style grounded in both tactical experience and intellectual curiosity. His combat command experience placed him in some of the most intense environments of his career, including a 12-month deployment that was unexpectedly extended during ongoing operations. It was there, after casualties and exhaustion, that he faced one of his defining leadership moments. Standing in front of his unit, he acknowledged the difficulty directly, saying, in effect, that the situation was overwhelming and unfair, but that they could not afford to lose focus. For Shaw, leadership in that moment was not about minimizing emotion, it was about acknowledging reality while still guiding people toward purpose.

After his combat tour, Shaw made an unusual transition. Rather than moving gradually up the traditional military hierarchy, he stepped away from the field and pursued graduate studies at Yale University, later reentering the military as a strategist. That path took him from platoon-level leadership to advising four-star generals at senior commands, including assignments tied to the Pentagon and multinational operations. He described this as “leadership by immersion,” learning not just through rank progression but through direct exposure to senior decision-makers. One key lesson stood out, the best leaders do not rely on volume or force, they lead with calm, often speaking quietly even in high-pressure environments. That experience shaped his understanding of leadership as something transferable across levels. Whether advising senior commanders or leading soldiers on the ground, the principles remained the same: Empathy, clarity, and focus on people over ego.

Following his military service, Shaw returned to West Point as an assistant professor and later transitioned fully into academia. Moving from Baghdad to Yale to West Point created an unusual perspective shift. It was during this period that he encountered civilians who had never interacted with someone from the military, which broadened his understanding of service itself. He came to see that dedication and commitment to public good exist across both military and civilian life, even if expressed differently. Today, at Arizona State University, Shaw works at the intersection of strategy, national security, and education. He contributes to initiatives such as the Competitive Statecraft Initiative and Security & Defence Plus, serving as a bridge between academic institutions and the national security community. He describes his role as a translator between two systems that often misunderstand each other. He did not leave the military out of fatigue, but because he saw an opportunity to continue serving in a different capacity, one shaped by collaboration, education, and institutional strategy.

Despite the shift in environment, Shaw is clear that the core of leadership has not changed. Military, academic, or civilian settings all rely on the same foundation. Good people, clear purpose, and a commitment to those you lead. In his view, leadership is not about hierarchy. It is about responsibility. One moment that continues to stay with him reflects how unexpectedly his career evolved. A conversation between senior military leadership and academic partners eventually led to him advising on Army learning initiatives at the highest level. He describes
much of his path as “forest gumping his way through it,” a series of unexpected opportunities
that only made sense in hindsight but consistently pointed back to service.

For veterans navigating transition, Shaw’s advice is direct. Do not try to replicate the military in your next role, instead, identify what originally drew you to serve and find a mission that continues that sense of purpose. Seek out good people, build around them, and stay committed to something bigger than yourself. For Shaw, that is the throughline. Leadership is not about the individual, it is about the mission, the vision, and the people who make it possible.