40+ of the best people I know in the world of strategy and ideas

Whenever I meet people in the world of strategy and ideas, I always try to think of two things:

1. What are you a go-to person for?

2. Which other go-to people can I introduce you to?

This helps me work out how I can be the most helpful to someone, and to get there of course you need a significant amount of active listening about what someone is really into. It also helps maximise the mathematics of team chemistry, if that’s your thing.

So, I thought I’d organise some of my go-to people as of August 2026. Roughly categorised by area of expertise, but some of these overlap. The list will keep changing over time.

Chances are, if I am recommending someone to you, I will direct you to one of these folks. Or this post. I hope it helps.

Best B2B strategists I know

Anna Harris. One of the smartest people I know around B2B. If you watch this micro workshop she hosted, you’ll see why.

Dan Squire. Another one of the smartest people I know around B2B. Plus he’s an in-house operator himself, so knows exactly how buy-in cycles go down and all that.

Best brand strategists I know

Adrian Mediavilla. My go-to for all things dad culture and applied brand strategy, by which mean brand as a business thing not just a comms thing.

Liz Hatherley. Freelancer extraordinaire on all things brand, plus an excellent human being to have a good conversation about pretty much anything.

Jon Crowley. A man who brings more clarity of thought to the most menial of topics than should be legally allowed, plus super generous with how he does it.

Ross Macdonald. If you’re looking to understand how brands tackle stigmatised topics that need more than “make it famous”, Ross is your go-to. Here’s why.

Best client services leads I know

Alex Dalman. Probably the best client services person I’ve ever worked with, who knows more about selling innovative creative work than anyone I know.

Allana Isaacs. One of the best operators I’ve worked with, especially when the timings are tough and we need to get a million things going at the same time.

Linh Diep. On top of being a superb strategy sparring partner, you know you’re in a trusted pair of hands. Especially crucial with complex thorny organisations.

Best career coaches I know

Dana Stevens. My former boss and now a career coach, who knew exactly how to manage her team’s emotional experience when shit got really (really) tough.

Best comms strategists I know

Drew Forrest. My current go-to person for discussing how to productise comms strategy and make it usable as part of a team’s actual workflows.

Joe Burns. The man who once explained different roles of comms strategy by talking about (literal) bananas, which immediately made me a fan of his mind.

Mark O’Rourke. This man will teach you more about clever media strategy in an hour than a thousand clever-sounding presentations by your media agency.

Perla Bloom. If you want smart comms strategy at the service of innovative types of creative work, Perla blends those two worlds with brilliant grace.

Whitney Bryan. Whitney brings the type of emotional intelligence we need to comms strategy, especially when dealing with tricky, er, internal customers.

Best commercial strategist I know

James Sandrini. One of the best minds I know that blends brand and commercial thinking, plus an excellent introducer of good people.

Best creative directors I know

Martin Beswick. One of the most open-minded, collaborative and delegation-friendly ECDs I’ve ever worked with. Hire him and instantly feel the good vibes.

Milan Desai. One of the best social-first creative directors I’ve ever worked with, who isn’t afraid to ask strategists how we can make the work even better.

Shlomo Genchin. A walking library of copywriting examples, templates and frameworks, plus an incredibly nice guy at every possible interaction.

Best cultural strategists I know

Alessia Clusini. A dear friend who always brings a pocket of interesting cultural thinking to every conversation. I always leave feeling richer after our chats.

Amy Daroukakis. The official Queen of network-weaving, brain-dancing, and generally getting good people together. A role model for my community work.

Nicole Ingra. It’s not every day you see Brazilian energy combined with the rigour you need to know where culture is headed and why. Nicole offers that.

Theophilus Wells IV. If you’re looking for someone who, as a principle, will find ways to challenge your preconceptions, that is the Theo Wells IV guarantee.

Best customer experience strategist I know

Ally Waring. Ally mixes so many different backgrounds into a single strategic mind, and turns all of that into more lateral ways into your customer strategy.

Best digital strategists I know

Matt Butler. If you’re curious about how the world of modern media is evolving, not just in terms of content but also commercial feasibility, Matt’s your guy.

Scott Ewings. An excellent mind for product strategy, digital transformation and actually getting you to hold onto every word he says. Gem of an individual.

Best experiential strategists I know

Zack Weisz. The man who got me interested in the world of experiential and events, who happens to head up strategy at one of the best shops in the biz.

Adam Doherty. If you need a creative director who thinks through proper distinctive experiences, not just fluffy idea slide kinda stuff, speak with Adam.

Best financial services strategists I know

Amy Hammond. An excellent client services lead who happens to be super into financial services as a category. Both things which the world needs more of.

Ingrid Sierra. One of the friendliest CMOs I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet, who knows more about fintech than you think there is to actually know.

Rachel O’Donovan. A good friend who went from agency side to consulting and helping run marketing departments at fintechs in SEA. No biggie, boss.

Best freelancing expert I know

Matthew Knight. The freelancer’s freelancer (unofficial title). Not only a great strategic mind, but a real advocate for every freelancer’s rights in the UK.

Best healthcare strategists I know

Bia Assevero. An excellent mind to challenge your preconceptions around what’s impossible vs just hard, in healthcare brand comms and beyond.

Erica Martinez. Erica has probably forgotten more about healthcare comms than you and I will ever learn. Honestly one of the best in the space for me.

Frankie Everson. There are people who you instantly feel will bring the right type of rigour and good vibes to a project. That’s working with Frankie for ya.

Melissa Holloway. One of the most knowledgeable writers I know about health and pharma comms, who also runs a startup so has massive skin in the game.

Rob Fuller. My homonymous pal at a range of projects at VCCP, who always makes you feel at ease to speak your mind and take the work to better places.

Best PR strategist I know

Emily Thomas. A super friendly strategist who is thinking about PR, visibility and exposure in the right ways through her company Gal Media Group.

Best creative producers I know

Johnny Brock. The creative producer who will stop at nothing to ensure the work gets done. This man is the closest I’ve seen to a creative agency unicorn.

Ryan O’Kane. Ryan knows more about influencers and creators than most people I know, plus one of the very best at handling unreasonable requests.

Best SEO expert I know

Robyn Mays. My go-to SEO and general digital strategy person these days, who always brings interesting insight about how small businesses really work.

Best social strategists I know

Mara Dettmann. Curator of the weird and wonderful things of the internet. Now a brand strategist, but still knows more about social culture (and how it affects a lot of other bits of culture) than most.

Michael Corcoran. The guy who helped Ryanair get to where it got to a few years ago, who now helps businesses get more effective with their in-house social operations.

George Nikolaou. If you’re looking for someone who gets social, creators and luxury codes, George is your guy.

Pollyanna Ward. I once described Pollyanna to a boss as a unicorn, who could speak the language of brand fundamentals as well as the language of fun social and content-led stuff. We need more minds like hers, basically.

Rox Parker. My go-to expert on all things paid social, who can tell you what to do with $50k, but also $500, without ever bullshitting you with unnecessary fancy language.

Steve Bryant. A delightful mind and soul who blends content strategy, creativity and production under basically one roof.

Best workshop experts I know

Erika Brenner. The Queen of workshops. If you’re looking for an exercise or framework to get people thinking together, chances are she’s used it before.

Rafael Buciani. An excellent collaborator when it comes to organising training sessions to help agencies and clients get better at this thing called creativity.

Find the good (people)

If you’re on this list, appreciate ya. If you reach out to any person on this list, I think you’ll be very well served. Truly.

I’ve learned many hard truths about strategy, but here’s one of the most essential ones: karma is the independent consultant’s quantum physics. You can’t quite work out how it really works, but it often does, and in weird and wonderful ways. The more we back each other, the more we get back. It’s how our universe works.