Two Top Executives at Tenneco Plan to Leave

Tenneco Inc. is reorganizing its corporate office following the sale of Tenneco Oil Co. and the retirement and resignation of two top executives.

John P. Diesel, Tenneco Inc. president, elected to take early retirement at age 62, and Joe B. Foster, 54, executive vice president, resigned to pursue other interests, a company statement said. Both also will resign from the Tenneco board. Their resignations are effective Dec. 31.

The corporate office now will be composed of James L. Ketelsen, 58, chairman and chief executive; Kenneth W. Reese, 58, executive vice president and director, and Allen T. McInnes, 51, executive vice president.

In October, Houston-based Tenneco announced that it had sold Tenneco Oil Co.--which had made up 22% of the corporation’s total revenue--for about $7.3 billion to several buyers. Tenneco is a diversified industrial corporation with major business interests in natural gas pipelines, farm and construction equipment, automotive parts, shipbuilding, packaging, chemicals and minerals.