The full board will vote on the selection after taking public testimony during its March
1 meeting.

As chief executive officer of MBTA, Grabauskas had oversight of a 6,100-employee operation, with an annual operating budget of $1.4 billion and an annual capital budget of more than $500 million, with operations in 175 municipalities throughout eastern
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. His work also included completion of several capital expansion projects, including an 18-mile commuter rail line. Grabauskas has also served as a senior fellow for public policy at the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth and as Secretary of Transportation for the state of Massachusetts, with oversight of a $1.4-billion annual administrative budget and an annual capital budget of more than $1.8 billion. In that cabinet-level role, Grabauskas had oversight of MBTA, highways and municipal airports.

If approved by the board, Grabauskas will begin his new role in mid-April.