Travis McCready

Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday announced his selections to serve on a new MBTA Board of Directors, naming the final five members that will allow the panel to launch its work months after the T’s previous governing board expired, including a life sciences expert at commercial brokerage JLL.

Baker named Betsy Taylor, a six-year veteran of the Department of Transportation Board of Directors, as the new T board’s chair.

He also selected Robert Butler, vice president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO; Thomas “Scott” Darling, a safety consultant; Travis McCready, executive director of the U.S. Life Sciences Market for JLL; and Mary Beth Mello, the principal at Mello Transportation Consulting.

Before McCready joined JLL, he served as president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and as vice president of programs for The Boston Foundation. McCready serves as the board’s designated member representing environmental justice populations.

Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler will also serve on the seven-member panel, as will Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, who was previously appointed by the independent MBTA Advisory Board that represents cities and towns that help fund the T.

Former Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi, who is a prominent transit advocate, a board member at advocacy group Transit Matters and a sometimes critic of the Baker administration’s transit policies, tweeted out his support for the new board members.

“Glad to see new @MBTA board selected. I know many of the members – all are knowledgeable, qualified & experienced. Looking forward to seeing how it all goes as #mapoli transit governance is critical to achieving forward looking outcomes,” he said.

Baker’s move comes months after he promised a new board in “four to six weeks,” and over a year and a half since the former T board was originally supposed to expire. Legislators and administration officials overburdened with responding to the COVID pandemic had extended the original board’s life by one year, to June 30, 2021. A string of safety incidents and a report outlining a pending “fiscal calamity” in the agency’s capital budget had prompted many calls for the governor to name his contributions to the MBTA’s new board.