New Delhi: Andy Byron, the CEO of the US tech company Astronomer, has quit his job after video footage showed him in a close, personal moment with a female coworker during a Coldplay concert in Boston. The incident got a lot of attention online and ended up in headlines around the world.
The company posted a message on LinkedIn, admitting that their usual standards weren’t met. They said, “Our leaders need to show good behavior and take responsibility, and recently that didn’t happen. Andy Byron has resigned, and the Board has accepted it. We’ll now begin looking for a new CEO. For now, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy will be the interim CEO.”
Astronomer also told everyone that although lots more people now know about the company because of this incident, their product and focus on helping customers with data and AI problems haven’t changed.
This all happened one day after the company put Byron on leave. The Board of Directors started a formal investigation into what happened between Byron and Astronomer’s HR chief, Kristin Cabot.
Drama During Coldplay Concert
The trouble began when Byron and Cabot were caught by the “Kiss Cam” at the concert. The video showed the two hugging and then quickly pulling apart as they realized the camera was on them—Byron ducked down while Cabot tried to cover her face, which made them look like they were hiding something.
Even Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin joked about it, saying on the microphone that the couple was either very shy or “having an affair.” In a follow-up video, he even said, “Oh s**t, I hope we didn’t do something bad.”
People on social media also noticed another woman next to them who seemed amused by it all. Some reports said she was Alyssa Stoddard, another Astronomer employee, but the company later said that was wrong: Alyssa wasn’t at the concert, and no other company employees were caught in the video.
The situation became even more serious because both Byron and Cabot are married to other people. After the video went viral, Byron’s wife—Megan Kerrigan, who works at a school—dropped his last name from her Facebook and then deleted her account completely.
Byron had only been CEO since 2023 and brought Cabot onto the team in November 2024. He’d earlier posted online about how much she had helped improve the company, but that post has since been deleted.
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