Ralph E. Hutchins will resign as chief...

Ralph E. Hutchins will resign as chief executive and president of struggling TransTechnology Corp. effective Jan. 1, the Sherman Oaks-based aerospace and industrial conglomerate announced last week.

The board of directors appointed Michael J. Berthelot, vice chairman and a member of the company’s three-member executive committee, as acting chief executive and president until a permanent chief executive is selected. Berthelot, an Ohio accountant and investor, has assumed an instrumental role in trying to turn the company around.

TransTechnology recently announced a sweeping cost-cutting plan under which it will move its corporate headquarters to Union, N.J., placing it closer to its 18 manufacturing sites. It also is negotiating the sale of four unprofitable or marginally profitable units.