Astronomer CEO Andy Byron has tendered his resignation three days after he was seen in a loving embrace with the head of the company’s HR department.
“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’s statement released Saturday reads.
“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. 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. While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not.
We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems,” the press release concluded.
The company also moved to quash rumors online that other employees were at the concert with the duo, and thus knew about the affair.
“Alyssa Stoddard was not at the event and no other employees were in the video,” the company wrote in its statement.
Social media went into meltdown after footage circulated showing two people – later identified as Byron and his company’s Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot – awkwardly jumping out of each other’s arms as they flashed up on a “kiss cam” during the band’s show in Boston Wednesday night.
A company official reportedly told Axios that Cabot has also been put on leave pending their internal investigation.
Byron, who had his arms wrapped around Cabot’s waist from behind, quickly let her go as his HR chief covered her face with her hands. He then crouched down, trying to hide from the camera.
“Oh, what…either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipped as the pair ran away from where they were standing.
In its statement immediately following the incident, the company sought to clarify several details, including Byron’s alleged response.
“Andy Byron has not put out any statement; reports saying otherwise are all incorrect,” the statement read.
Though Byron has kept mum on the incident, Astronomer co-founder Ry Walker, who was CEO himself from 2015 to 2019, and worked with him briefly, spoke out on X. “I’ve found Andy to be professional, I’ve only ever been on a call with him once,” he wrote.
“Everyone on the team has praised his leadership to me. So I think this is an unfortunate development that comes as a big surprise,” he added.
Byron has been CEO of Astronomer, a New York City-based data orchestration platform that “empowers data teams to bring mission-critical analytics, Ai, and software to life,” since 2023, according to the company’s LinkedIn page.
Meanwhile, Cabot joined the team nine months ago, according to her LinkedIn.
Despite the official investigation, hundreds cracked jokes online about the awkward situation, speculating that the two were cheating on their spouses.
“:ol if they’d have just stuck it out and smiled for the camera this would never have surfaced as virally as it did,” one internet user wrote. “Their spouses would have left them anyway once they learned of their Coldplay fetish,” another joked.
