Astronomer CEO Andy Byron has resigned after he was seen intimately embracing the company’s chief human resources officer, Kristin Cabot, during Coldplay’s concert in Boston on Wednesday. Their moment at Gillette Stadium was caught on the jumbotron.
“As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.
“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,” the company continued. “The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.”
“Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI,” Astronomer added.
“While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not,” Astronomer concluded its statement. “We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data & AI problems.”
Byron’s resignation comes less than 24 hours following Astronomer’s announcement that Byron and Cabot were both put on leave and that the incident was being professionally investigated. (Attempts to reach Byron and Cabot were unsuccessful.) On Friday, Astronomer issued a statement announcing its Board of Directors had “initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly,” adding: “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability.”
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On Wednesday during Coldplay’s show, the duo looked to be caught off-guard when the embrace incident was seen by more than 50,000 people at Gillette Stadium. Their immediate reaction was to duck and turn away from the camera and leaving the frame, which likely led to the speculation and suspicions over their non-professional-appearing relationship.
Coldplay’s shows feature “The Jumbotron Song,” where Martin riffs about whomever is captured on the camera. In a clip filmed during the incident, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin joked from the stage: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
