The following is a list of notable planners throughout time and some examples of their contributions. If you add someone to the Hall of Fame, let us know what they have done to stand out.

Stanley Pollitt - Boase Massimi Pollitt (London)

Stanley Pollitt was born on February 14, 1930 in Paris France. His father was a painter who moved the family between France and Italy while Pollitt was growing up. As an adolescent, Pollitt attended the St. Paul's School at St. Paul's' Cathedral in London, where he excelled in history and the arts. He subsequently decided to attend Cambridge and initially started working towards becoming a barrister. He had a friend whose father was a partner of Pritchard Wood Partners and it was at that agency that he stared his legacy in the advertising world. In the beginning he floated from the media department, to being a copywriter, to finally, the account group. Within two years as an account person, he was working on some of the company's largest accounts, including Izal Strong Tissue Paper. Within Pritchard Wood, Pollitt often worked closely with all of the other departments in the agency. "I was in the luck position at PWP to be essentially an account director, a user of research and media services, with board responsibility for the research and media departments. It enabled me to rationalize these into a planning group, while avoiding all the usual political infighting, " It was through his exposure of the research department that Pollitt was least satisfied. To him, there were five major faults in consumer research. In 1968, Pollitt, along with Martin Boase and Gabe Massimi, started the agency Boase Massimi Pollitt. All three men worked at Pritchard Wood Partners, a company, who at the time was part of the Interpublic group, and had blossomed during an advertising creative boom. Although the trio attempted to purchase Pritchard Wood, Interpublic hesitated at their request, and so they instead created BMP along with the help of seven of their colleagues. The founders of BMP brought the Cadbury's account with them from their previous agency and established themselves with their work on this account for Cadbury's Smash potato, an instant mix potatoe powder. After the first commercial was aired, a whole Martian series was created. The series featured a Martian family, including a cat and a dog, making fun of earthlings boiling and peeling their potatoes. It was at BMP that Pollitt installed his first account planning department. Pollitt stayed with BMP until the time of his unsightly death. He died prematurely in 1979, at age 49, from a heart attack.

Stephen King - J. Walter Thompson (JWT)

Paul Feldwick - BMP DDB Needham

Paul Feldwick started his career as an account executive and became one of BMP's and London's most highly regarded planners.  He went on to run the hugely successful planning function at BMP and over the years increasingly worked for DDB as a global network, developing a global framework for planning advertising and helping to found DDB University.   He was Convenor of Judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards in 1988/90, and has written and lectured extensively on how advertising works and brand equity, amongst other things. His book, What Is Brand Equity Anyway?, was published in 2002.   Paul has also been Chairman of the APG and the AQR, and is a Fellow of the IPA and of the MRS

Adam Lury - HHCL - London

Adam was a BMP planner through and through but in 1987 he left Bishop's Bridge Road to found Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury (Campaign Magazine's Agency of the Decade). In many respects Adam was the vision behind the agency to Rupert Howell's ambition and energy and Steve Henry and Axel Chaldecott's creative genius. Many of the innovations that would make HHCL famous came from Adam, not least the early conversion to the cause of integration (Google up his prescient pamphlet "Marketing at a Point of Change" from 1994) . In terms of planning he created an environment where planners led from the front, worked collaboratively with creatives and account people in project teams and followed work from brief to clock number. In the work that he nurtured and planning culture he created (now exported throughout the industry by the diaspora of HHCL) he had a far greater effect on the discipline than one might suspect - a fundamentally new style based on ideas first and facts second.

John Steel - Boase Massimi Pollitt - London, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Initial google searches reveal remarkably little bigoraphical details on this highly respected planner. Heavyweight pitcher is one consensus.

Alan Hedges - researcher, author of Testing to Destruction

Ross Barr - BMP DDB Needham

Chris Cowpe - BMP DDB Needham - London

Chris and Ross were the two first graduate trainee planners (ever) hired by Stanley Pollitt, through an ad in the Evening Standard

Tony Stead - J Walter Thomson - London

Tony Stead invented the department/job title 'Account Planners'at a JWT awayday in July 1968. "We started by not knowing what on earth to call it. We thought of Brand Planner and we used that as a code for a while. Then people said that 'brand' suggests small packaged things so Tony said "Why don't you call them Account Planners?" and that was that. (Stephen King, 50 in 40 interview). He worked in the Media Department and was one of the founding members of Stephen's first Account Planning dept: "Stephen King was the new head of Account Planning and in charge of Research and Information. There were seven account planning group heads, each having two planners working for them, drawn roughly from the old Marketing and Media

Departments. Reasearch was headed by Tom Corlett with Judie Lannon and Doug Richardson.

MT Rainey - TBWA - London, Bartle Bogle Hegarty - London, Gold Greenlees Trott - London, Chiat/Day - Los Angeles/London, Rainey Kelley Campbell Roalfe - London

After studying for a PhD in the cognitive psychology of 'decisiveness' MT had a glittering planning career in London. She subsequently was one of the original UK planning exports to the US, working at Chiat/Day, notably on the strategy for the launch of the Apple Mac in 1984. Later head of Chiat/Day London and founder of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe. She Recently launched the pioneering Horse's Mouth; a heavily funded UK social venture, 'the myspace of mentoring'.

John Bartle - Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Jim Carroll - Bartle Bogle Hegarty - Planning Director and now Chairman

His 'conspicuous contribution' to planning is the number of great, strategically sound ad campaigns he has directly helped shape. (Fifteen years of Levi's ads, ten years of  Lynx ads and more).  Moreover he is still actively involved in planning great campaigns. In addition Jim's contribution to the APG is the number of BBH award entries and winners over the last ten years. He is a quiet but staunch advocate of the awards and until this year, edited and proof-read all BBH entries. He has also contributed to APG training courses over the years - most notably the brief writing and briefing courses alongside Nigel Jones in the mid-Nineties. Jim is still actively involved in planning great campaigns, has a terrific reel and is still in the business of making - as opposed to pontificating on the subject.

Judie Lannon J. Walter Thomson

Peter Cooper

Louise Cook BMP

Terry Bullen

Sarah Carter BMP DDB Needham

Paul Twivy - BMP - London, Still Price Court Twivy De Souza - London

Ewen Cameron - BMP planner, later worked in New York, co-founding Berlin Wright Cameron

Will Collin - BMP Planner and later co-founder of Naked

Jon Leach - BMP, HHCL & Partners, Bell Pottinger

David O'Hanlon - HHCL & Partners, McCann Erickson

Mark Piper - HHCL & Partners

Notoriously prickly, Mark began his work career as a rocket scientist trying to 'screw up the world', and subsequently joined IMP advertising as a planner, "self-interestedly trying to wake up the world" before moving to HHCL & Partners. Mark was responsible for two major HHCL brand launches in the 90's, Go - Low Cost Airlines and Egg - Online Banking. Mark has said that in the future, he would like to be a fiction writer, "mischievously manipulating my own little world." Mark is the only planner to say with a straight face about the discipline of account planning "It's not rocket science".

David Cowan _ BMP head of planning

Charlie Robertson - formely of GGT, head of planning for many years at BBH, founded Red Spider

Kay Scorah

Nigel Jones - BMP planning director

Damien O’Malley - BMP DDB, later director of planning DDB NY

Simon Clemmow - Clemmow Hornby Inge

Anthony Buck - BMP (and later BBH's) IPA effectiveness secret weapon. A man who could turn a scrap of cardboard and a handle into a compelling case.

Jackie Boulter

Wendy Gordon

Nick Kendall - planning director BBH

Jim Carroll - planning director BBH

Rita Clifton - planning director Saatchi's later CEO then chairman of Interbrand

Tony Wright - started in planning in UK, moved to Chiat/Day in US, Chief startegic officer O&M, cofounder Wrighet Cameron Berlin, now chairman of Lowe

Leslie Butterfield - BMP, head of planning AMV, founder BDDH

Mark Earls

Merry Baskin

One of the few planners who has been both an 'Ad Tweaker' (6 years as Head of Planning at Chiat/Day New York, where the planning dept was modelled on BMP, and then nine years as Head of Planning at JWT) and a 'Grand Strategist'. Prior to both of these was the planner on British Airways at Saatchi from 83 to 86. Revamped the APG in time for planning's 30th birthday, and has contributed to a couple of APG planning books. Staunch believer in planning craft skills, she has trained and inspired countless planners both here and overseas.

Mike Hall

Alison Hoad

Laurence Green

Max Burt

Tim Broadbent

Chris Riley

Jane Newman

Barry Pritchard

Roddy Glen

Chris Forrest

Richard Reed

Will Collin

Mike Hall – Ex Leagas Planner, founded his company on Stephen King’s principles and theories of how communication works

Gary Duckworth – Name first on the door – ditto.

Rob White (now running Fallon Worldwide, ex Chiat/Day LA, trainee of Mike Hall

Sev De Souza – wrote the original What is Planning? Ex Still, Price Court Twivy, etc etc.

Possibly the most extravagant, memorable and much missed name in the history of advertising.

Marilyn Baxter

Beth Barry – founded the APG planning awards

Chris Forrest – DFGW – Daewoo fame, now running the Nursery, planning’s favourite qual research company.

Rod Meadows – Benton and Bowles, introduced Simon Clemmow to SK’s writings.

Charles Channon – founder of the IPA effectiveness awards, intellectual and camp, used to leave notes for his partner and write his shopping list in latin.

Emma Cookson – Built BBH US into the force it is

Neil Cassie – The idea for his new company is grounded on Stephen King brand principles

Nick Kendall – BBH veteran luminary, still inspiring generations of IPA trainees.

David Brent– PIONEER OF THE AD AGENCY PLANNING ROLE IN AUSTRALIA – 1965 / 66