T brings GE exec on board as GM
The MBTA’s new general manager — a General Electric veteran touted as a turnaround expert — could become one of the nation’s highest-paid public transit chiefs, with an incentiveladen contract that could hit nearly $400,000 a year.
Former GE executive Luis Ramirez was named yesterday to be the fifth to helm the troubled agency under Gov. Charlie Baker.
“I believe in Luis that we’ve found the person who can be that stable and transformative leader (for the T),” Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said.
Ramirez, who has no transit background, will start on Sept. 12 with a base salary of $320,000. But his three-year contract, with two option years, includes the potential for substantial performance bonuses, ranging from 10 percent of his salary in the first year to 20 percent by year three.
Ramirez will also get an annual 1.5 percent salary bump, which would push his base pay to just under $330,000 in 2019. If he hits all of the to-be-determined milestones in his contract, that would mean he’d also receive a roughly $65,000 bonus that year, hiking his pay to more than $395,000.
Interim GM Steve Poftak, who’s led the agency since July 1, is making $260,000, while his predecessor, Brian Shortsleeve, made $175,000.
Ramirez could eventually match or pass his counterparts elsewhere. Paul Wiedefeld, head of the Washington, D.C., Metro, makes $397,500 while Thomas Prendergast, the former head of New York’s MTA, was making roughly $346,000 before retiring this year. The head of San Francisco’s rapid transit system makes roughly $332,000.
Baker administration officials have said they intended to hike the GM’s salary to lure a business-minded exec. Pollack said yesterday, “We also wanted to create a system where performance was rewarded.”
Other high-ranking T officials also have seen pay hikes. Jeff Gonneville, who made $209,000 last year as the T’s chief operating officer, is now making $250,000 as deputy GM and could earn performance bonuses, according to Pollack. Michael Abramo, who was elevated to chief administrative officer from CFO last month, now makes $210,000, or about 20 percent more than Shortsleeve did as chief administrator.