SiliconBeat

Exponent, the Menlo Park engineering and scientific consulting firm, said today that it will make its current chief operating officer Paul Johnston (pictured) ,who’s been with the company for 28 years, its chief executive as of the company’s next annual meeting on May 28. At that time the current CEO, Michael Gaulke, 62, will become executive chairman of the board of directors, a role he will serve for a year.

Johnston, 55, began his work with Exponent, known then as Failure Analysis, responsible for the company’s health and environmental businesses. He eventually assumed management of all of the company’s consulting groups, and became COO in 2003.

Johnston got his Ph.D. in civil engineering and M.S. in Structural Engineering from Stanford, and received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Trinity College Dublin.