The man, the myth, the legend.
Shoji Kawamori is man behind Macross, sometimes known to the English-speaking world as Robotech. Setting aside for a moment the still-heated debate over the whole Macross/Robotech issue, let's discuss Kawamori-san.
Not only did he create the excellent sci-fi premise that drives the Macross universe, but he wrote the original series (as far as I know) and, perhaps most importantly of all, designed the mecha.
Yup, the Valkyrie fighter, maybe the best mechanical design in all of anime, was done by Shoji Kawamori. The elegance of the design still startles me sometimes.
He worked on Macross, Macross Plus, and Macross 7 (the touch of the master was noticeably absent from Macross II), and also wrote and directed Escaflowne, another mind-blowing series.
Lest I forget, many of you may have seen a Kawamori design without knowing it; he did the walking tank at the end of Ghost in the Shell, and perhaps other designs in that movie as well.