VALLEY PEOPLE

* Peter Guber and Paul Schaeffer will be joining the Iwerks Entertainment Inc. board of directors as chairman and vice chairman, respectively. They will contribute to strategic planning on the overall direction of Iwerks, the Burbank company said. Guber and Schaeffer are co-founders and current chairman and vice chairman of the Mandalay Entertainment Group.

Iwerks is a full-service provider of high-tech entertainment systems, support services and film-based software in large format, ride simulation and specialty venue attractions.

* Mel Kohn, managing partner of Kirsh, Kohn & Bridge CPAs, Encino, and co-chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.’s Local Issues Committee, has been elected president of the newly formed Business Tax Advisory Committee created by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council.

The committee will offer recommendations to the council on business tax reform.

* Gwen Walden has been named senior program officer with the California Endowment, Woodland Hills, the state’s largest health foundation.

Walden will review grant proposals from Southern California organizations and provide outreach to underserved communities, particularly the Antelope Valley.

She had been senior program officer at the J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles.

* Gerald J. Popek has been appointed chief technology officer at CarsDirect.com, Sherman Oaks.

Popek, who served on the defense science board that helped select the foundation for today’s Internet, was most recently chief technology officer at Platinum Technology Inc., Oak Brook, Ill.

CarsDirect.com is an Internet-based vehicle marketplace with 2,500 makes and models from every major manufacturer. Its services include selection, financing and delivery.

* Susan Garelli has been named vice president of human resources for Disney Consumer Products, Burbank, the company announced.

She comes to Disney from Avery Dennison, a worldwide manufacturer of self-adhesive materials and consumer products. Garelli will provide human resources support and strategy to Disney Consumer’s global licensing business, Disney Interactive, Walt Disney Art Classics and to the division’s finance, creative / marketing, and information technologies / business operations groups, as well as to Disney Consumer’s human resources department. She will also oversee the division’s employee communications and media-relations activities.

Disney Consumer Products is a division of Walt Disney Co.