On September 7, 2015, Mr. Colm Imbert was re-elected for the eighth time to the House of Representatives as the Member for Diego Martin North/East in the 11th Republican Parliament. As of January 2017, he has served as an elected PNM Member of Parliament for over 25 continuous years and as a Cabinet Minister in five PNM Governments for an aggregate of almost 14 years.
For over thirty-five years, Mr. Imbert has also been serving Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean Region in his original profession of Engineering. Immediately following graduation, with Honours, from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus in 1979 he worked on a number of projects within the Caribbean Region as a Consulting Civil Engineer. While developing his practice and gaining experience he successfully pursued a Masters Degree in Maritime Civil Engineering from the University of Manchester, England and was formally registered as an engineer in Trinidad and Tobago in 1986.
Mr. Imbert then transitioned into the academic world and lectured in Construction Management at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies from 1985 to 1991. He also worked as a specialist consultant from 1990 to 1991 for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Sea Defences for the Government of Guyana.
In 1991, Mr. Imbert entered public life as a Member of Parliament and a Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the Ministry of Works and Transport and Local Government, until 1995 when he became a member of the Opposition.
During the period 1995 to 2001 Mr. Imbert focused on the application of his knowledge and skills in Engineering as a Property Developer and Project Manger throughout the Caribbean Region. During his fourth, fifth and sixth terms as a Member of Parliament, from 2001 to 2010, he once again served in the Cabinet as Minister of Health and Minister of Science and Technology until he again resumed responsibility for the portfolio of the Ministry of Works and Transport.
After the General Election of 2007, Mr. Imbert took on the additional responsibility of Leader of the House and continued to build on his past performance in the Ministry of Works and Transport in development of the country’s infrastructure. In 2010, in his seventh term as an MP, he went into Opposition for the third time, where he served as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.
In September 2015, when the PNM once again regained the Government, Mr. Imbert was appointed Minister of Finance, returning as an MP for the eighth time and a Cabinet Minister for the fifth time.
Professionally, Mr. Imbert is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Energy Institute. In recent years, he has expanded his knowledge base from engineering into law and taxation. In 2007, he attained a Master of Laws Degree in Construction Law and Arbitration with Distinction, and in 2016, he attained his third Master’s Degree, this time in Oil and Gas Law, again with Distinction, with a specialisation in Fiscal Regimes and Oil Taxation. Both of his specialised law degrees are from the Aberdeen Business School.