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Above & Beyond has hired former Wunderman Thompson executive Matt Steward to join its management team and lead the agency.

Steward will work alongside Dominic Goldman, executive creative director, and the pair will report to Zaid Al-Zaidy, group chief executive of The Beyond Collective.

In his new role, Steward will be responsible for upholding the independent creative agency’s “audience age” mantra as well as its dedication to “the work, the people, the money”.

At Wunderman Thompson, Steward was chief client officer and executive board member and previously led pitch wins on BT Sport and Sage that resulted in more than 80 awards and several Grand Prix awards across D&AD, Cannes and the DMA.

He also held two managing director positions earlier in his career at RKCR/Y&R and Digitas LBi where he oversaw the creation of award-winning campaigns for Honda, Lloyds Bank, Virgin and the BBC.

Steward commented on his new position: “This is a brilliant opportunity to grow an agency with a team that has an unswerving focus on game-changing creativity and investment in great talent which has audience age thinking at its heart.

“I can’t wait to get stuck in with Dom and the team. I’m giddy with excitement to see what we can do together.”

Al-Zaidy said: “Matt is a rare beast who has successfully led and grown agencies and client business across all specialist strata within our industry – from advertising, to digital, CRM and integrated. This and his client leadership of large, complex, modern and famous brands make him the perfect fit for Above & Beyond.

“He is a great believer in the power of creativity to grow business and he operates with an infectious positivity that I know will bring energy and possibility to everyone he works with. With Matt and Dom at the helm, I am looking forward to an even more prosperous future of audience age creativity.”

Tom Bedwell, who has been managing director at Above & Beyond since 2018, will also move into a new role. Bedwell will become managing director of Beyond Collective’s strategic consultancy business, Frontier.

He will still be responsible for some of the agency’s clients and will also expand and develop Frontier’s offering this year.

Al-Zaidy added: “I’d like to thank Tom for leading Above & Beyond through our business transformation – and, not least, the pandemic – and I look forward to continuing our work together as part of his new leadership of Frontier and its own exciting next chapter of growth.”