Who are the real SEO Guru's? Is it better to use an SEO company or build a team?

I am concerned as i am sure many of you are that the SEO guru's that most of us know aren't actually the best at SEO, they are just the best marketers...

There is so much SEO information for sale- learn how to be a pro SEO etc. and to me it seems like all the same stuff just repackaged and rehashed.

How do you go about finding the key people behind the scenes- the silent hero's who are in the trenches doing this stuff and getting remarkable results? Any names people want to drop? What companies do they have? Do they actually do anything differently or are they just doing all the stuff that we know we should be doing but just don't on a bigger scale?

I have done all the keyword research and the on page optimisation for a new site launching in about month, so for me it is then just a question of backlinking.

Are SEO companies really worth what we pay them and if you are targeting masses of keywords would you be better off training and employing a person (s) to do it?

I have researched the backlink profiles of many sites and the links they are getting are often from utterly horrible spammy sites with a majestic SEO rank of 0. I am scared to put my backlinking into the hands of an unknown. How do you ensure that the company you are dealing with if you choose that avenue is not gonna be doing that kind of stuff.

If you regard yourself as an SEO expert, then i would also be keen to hear from you regarding consulting on establishing an SEO team, processes etc. Projects you have worked on backlink profiles performed and rankings on your best keywords and rates would also be useful information to send me. I am knowledgable about the subject but not practiced

Any thoughts are as always most gratefully appreciated...

Cheers,
James