Although Trucept Inc’s CEO Brian Bonar is retiring, he plans to stay on board through June to ease the transition as Norman Tipton, the firm’s former general counsel and vice president, takes the helm.

The San Diego-based payroll and benefits firm announced the plans in a Feb. 27 press release.

Tipton, who has been vice president for 10 years, has a long record of assisting the boards of other companies, including Science Applications International Corp., a Fortune 500 firm that serves the U.S. government from its base in Virginia.

In addition to his business acumen, Tipton has extensive academic experience, teaching law at his alma mater, San Diego State University, for the past 20 years. In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in sociology, Tipton graduate from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law with honors.