The decision to remove Luis Ramirez as general manager of the MBTA after only 15 months on the job stemmed from a "group discussion," Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday, sidestepping the question of whether he made a mistake hiring the Dallas businessman in 2017 to run the embattled transit agency.

Ramirez signed a three-year contract in the summer of 2017 to lead the MBTA, but left this week with a $151,000 severance package as Baker and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack replaced him with the vice-chair of the Fiscal Management and Control Board Steve Poftak.

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As a former General Electric executive and Texas-based business consultant, Ramirez had no public transportation experience when he was hired in August 2017. Baker defended his hiring at the time, and said that after a year he believed "most other people will agree with me" that Ramirez "brings exactly what the MBTA needs."

That's not how things played out.

"I certainly would have liked to have seen it last longer, but I do believe the secretary and Luis had a series of what I would describe as honest discussions and I do think Steve is the right guy to run with the capital program," Baker said Thursday.

Poftak starts as general manager on January 1, and has a lengthy history working on public transit issues as both a member of the FMCB and due to his time as research director at the Pioneer Institute and executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School.

"The things the T really needs to do here is execute on this eight billion dollar, five-year capital plan that we've got and Steve Poftak, who's on the FMCB and has been writing about and studying this particular issue for a long time, is the right guy to run with this," Baker said.

The governor credited Ramirez with doing a number of "very important and significant things" with respect to contracting and procurement at the MBTA and a braking system known as positive train control, and offered his "full confidence" in Pollack to remain on as secretary "as long as she wants that job."

Pollack intends to stay on in the cabinet as Baker starts his second term, she told the News Service Tuesday, and believes the continuity will be good for Poftak and the MBTA.