New MBTA GM will start at $320k per year

Luis Ramirez, who handled a $3.5 billion line of business for General Electric and led his own turnaround consulting firm, will take the reins as the new general manager and CEO of the MBTA in September.

Under the three-year employment contract, Ramirez will be paid $320,000 per year with 1.5 percent annual raises, and he will be eligible to receive performance-based bonuses - a relatively novel contract feature for MBTA chiefs.

Steve Poftak, the executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, has served as interim GM since July 1, pulling in a salary annualized to $260,000. Brian Shortsleeve, who took over as acting general manager last year before returning to the private sector, made $175,000 per year.

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said she is sure that Ramirez could command more earnings in the private sector.

Pollack, who has statutory authority to appoint the new GM, said she consulted with Fiscal and Management Control Board members on her choice to lead the T through the next phase of its turnaround.

The historic winter storms of 2015 laid bare the MBTA's deficiencies and set in motion a series of shifts at the top of the agency that oversees buses, trains, trolleys, subways, ferries and paratransit vehicles.

Ramirez will be the fifth head of the MBTA under Pollack, who has been Gov. Charlie Baker's transportation chief since he took office in 2015.
Pollack said the T is in the middle-phase of its turnaround.

"You're still not seeing the results you want to see and that's when things get tough. And that's the phase the T is at now. A lot of progress, but not enough in terms of the service we deliver to our customers every day," Pollack told reporters Tuesday. "So I think the energy and the perspective that the new general manager's going to bring to the T is exactly what we need at this phase."

In 2015, Ramirez left Global Power Equipment Group and founded the Dallas-based TodoModo Group, a business consultancy that works on turnarounds. From 2000 to 2012, he worked at GE, rising to the position of CEO of GE Energy Industrial Solutions, where he oversaw mining, rail, datacenter, electric vehicle, solar and other industrial areas. - Andy Metzger/SHNS

State House News Service