Diana Mahabir-Wyatt graduated from Mc Gill University, Quebec, Canada in 1963 having worked in the field of Education. In the early 60’s she coordinated a class at the Lady Hochoy Home and taught at St Augustine Girls’ High School, going on, from 1963 -1966 to teach a survey course in communications skills at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies. She is a certified Psychometric Testing specialist and has been trained in Domestic Violence counseling and in Executive Coaching by the Institute of Executive Coaching in California, USA. In 2001 she got her M.Sc. (Edu) from CSUH, specializing in online education and adult learning, and in 2012 was awarded an LLD (Doctorate of Laws – honoris causa) from the University of the West Indies. In that year she was also awarded a Community Service Medal (Gold) for her work in the field of Human Rights specifically work with women. She is also certified in Psychometric Testing, Mediation, Executive Coaching, and Counselling.
In 1966, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt joined the Employers’ Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago responsible for setting up supervisory and management training programmes and for handling general administration. In 1969, she was appointed Director of the Association. Serving as Chief Executive Officer of the Employers’ Consultative Association and the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation simultaneously for almost 15 years, she gave assistance to employers’ federations throughout the Caribbean in industrial relations, management training, labour legislation and human resource development.
Ms. Mahabir-Wyatt served as a founding member of the National Training Board of Trinidad and Tobago, of the Registration, Recognition and Certification Board and of the National Insurance Board of Trinidad & Tobago. She served on various other national committees and commissions including the Workman’s Compensation/Employment Injury Committee, Severance Pay Legislation Committee, Freedom of Association Committee, National Flexi-Time Committee, National Productivity Council, the National Training Board, the Self Help Commission, and the Family Court Committee, among others, as well as on the Boards of Directors of several private companies, Servol Limited, Childline, and numerous other community based boards. During this period she worked with many government ministries and international organisations including the International Labour Organisation where she served as an alternate member of the governing body, the OAS and the Inter-American Development Bank.
In 1991 Diana Mahabir-Wyatt was formally appointed an Independent Senator by the President of the Republic in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and served continuously in that position until she left the Senate in 2000.
She is at present the Chairman of the Board and an Executive Director in the consultancy firm of PMSL. Since becoming a founding Partner of PMSL, her portfolio has included the development of performance management systems, managing the human resource aspects of organizational change, assessing training needs and developing training programmes appropriate to the culture of individual companies, and industrial sectors, executive “head hunting”, psychometric testing, executive level mediation and internal company investigations, dispute handling and providing advice, individual coaching and training in industrial relations, team-work and leadership development matters.
Mrs Mahabir-Wyatt served the Trinidad and Tobago Nominating Committee of the Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence from 2009 to 2017 and joined the Board of the ANSA McAL Foundation on August 28, 2017. She was appointed the Foundation’s representative on the Regional Eminent Persons Panel on April 30, 2018.
