Ventura-based Clean Diesel Technologies said Dec. 10 that CEO and President R. Craig Breese has resigned to “pursue other opportunities.” He will remain at his post until Jan. 8 and the company has created an interim office of the chief executive to replace him. Breese was also a member of the board of directors.

Nikhil Mehta, Clean Diesel’s chief financial officer, and Pedro J. Lopez-Baldrich, its general counsel and vice president of administration, will temporarily assume the CEO duties.

Breese, 60, earned slightly more than $1 million last year in total compensation, according to regulatory filings. The resignation comes less than a month after Clean Diesel, which makes a variety of devices to reduce pollution in vehicles and trucks, dissolved a joint venture with Italian tire-maker Pirelli due to lower-than-expected sales.