![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/object/924/924074/sebastian-shaw_pictureboxart_160w.jpg)
Sebastian Hiram Shaw is the leader of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, an exclusive secret society bent on world domination. Although to the public, he is a legitimate businessman and ordinary human. Shaw created Shaw Industries and was a billionaire by 40, after being a successful engineering student at Carnegie Mellon University. He used some of his billions to fund the mutant-hunting Sentinel program. His fiancé Lourdes Chantel was killed by a Sentinel but let's not be conspiracy theorists.
She is so evil that his own son, Shinobi Shaw, who can alter his body's density, phased his hand into his father's chest to try and induce a coronary. Not happy with that outcome, Shinobi then set off a bomb in Shaw's mountain chalet.
Shaw is also partly responsible for Phoenix becoming Dark Phoenix. After Professor X was "outed" as a mutant, Shaw apparently returned to his capitalist roots and converted the New York branch of the Hellfire Club into a strip club. Said to be a safe haven for mutants, he used telepathic strippers to gain secrets from his patrons.
Shaw's mutant powers include the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which thusly increases his strength. So if you hit him, he gets more powerful. You can even shoot him or stab him and he still gets more powerful. Shaw also doesn't need to sleep if he gets punched enough. Just don't touch him, how about that?