Ira Herenstein Promoted to S&P; President

Ira Herenstein was named Tuesday as president of Standard & Poor’s Corp., the financial information and rating service that is a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Inc.

Herenstein’s promotion was part of the formation of a new business and financial information group at McGraw-Hill that encompasses Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Financial & Economic Information Co. (FEICO) and McGraw-Hill Information Systems Co. Herenstein’s predecessor at S&P;, Howard D. Hosbach, was named corporate executive vice president-operations to head the new group, and Jonathan Newcomb was named president of FEICO.

“As more and more of McGraw-Hill’s business, financial and economic information is being created and delivered through new technology, so the opportunities have increased dramatically for combining these valuable databases into additional information products,” Joseph L. Dionne, McGraw-Hill president and chief executive, said in a prepared statement.

The new group “is designed to accelerate these opportunities and to bring together many of the information delivery systems that have been developed successfully” at the three subsidiaries, he said.

NATION

John A. Schoneman abruptly resigned as chairman and chief executive of Wausau Insurance Cos., which has been losing money and suffering a drop in surplus capital.

The company did not elaborate on his reasons for departing, and a spokesman in Wausau, Wis., declined to comment except to say that the resignation came as a surprise. Schoneman could not be reached for comment.

Thomas Hancock, who has been chairman of the executive committee of the board, was named to temporarily assume Schoneman’s duties.

The company, which primarily sells insurance to businesses, posted a $207-million loss last year, and its surplus capital base dropped 41% to $303 million at the end of 1984.

The White House said President Reagan plans to reappoint Allie C. Felder Jr. as a director of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. Felder, a member of the corporation since 1971, is senior vice president of the Cooperative League of the U.S.A.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Phillip C. Wallach has been named vice president-investor relations at Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles. He formerly was president of Wallach Associates Inc., New York, a financial and public-relations consulting firm of which Occidental was a client.

Stuart Lighton has been named executive vice president and general manager of Torie Steele Boutiques, Beverly Hills.