Astronomer CEO Andy Byron has officially resigned from his position after seemingly being caught cheating with his employee Kristin Cabot on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert.
“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,” a spokesperson for Astronomer told Us Weekly in a Saturday, July 19, statement. “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.”
The statement added, “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 & AI problems.”
Us confirmed on Friday, July 18, that Byron was placed on leave from his position and DeJoy had taken over.
Footage of the CEO went viral following his and Cabot’s attendance at Coldplay’s show at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, July 16. Byron — who is married to Megan Kerrigan Byron — was shown on the jumbotron with his arms wrapped around Cabot’s waist, though they both tried to duck out of sight once they realized they were being shown on the kiss cam.
Prior to Byron’s first public comments on the matter, numerous false statements attributed to the embattled CEO circulated on special media. One clearly satiric statement had Byron confessing only to being “a Coldplay fan.”
Astronomer later denied that Byron had written a second, more believable, public apology where he seemed to shift the blame onto Coldplay.
“I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent,” the fake statement read. “I respect artists and entertainers, but I hope we can all think more deeply about the impact of turning someone else’s life into a spectacle … As a friend once sang: ‘Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.’”
Byron joined Astronomer — a data orchestration and observability platform — as CEO in 2023 after previously serving as president of tech firm Lacework from 2019 to 2022. He personally announced Cabot’s hiring as Astronomer’s new Chief People Officer in November 2024. (Cabot previously held a similar position at graph database management company Neo4.)
At Astronomer, our people are the most valuable asset in helping our customers do more to gain a competitive advantage with their data,” Byron said. “Kristin’s exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory. She is a proven leader at multiple growth-stage companies and her passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces makes her a perfect fit for Astronomer.”
At the time of her Astronomer hiring, Cabot singled out Byron for their “energiz[ing]” conversations throughout the hiring process. She also once bragged about her ability to “win trust” with CEOs after taking the job on Astronomer’s People team, according to PageSix.
Amid the mounting scandal, Astronomer cofounder Ry Walker sought to distance himself from the viral video by clarifying that he was “no longer” working for the tech company.
“For those asking — I’m no longer involved in @astronomerio — yes I was co-founder and early CEO — not on the team or board since 2022, and have no information on ColdplayGate,” he confirmed via X on Thursday, July 17.
Walker then joked, “I have 704 liked songs in Spotify — none are Coldplay, but I do think Chris Martin is an amazing vocalist.”
Meanwhile, Byron’s wife reacted to the scandal by scrubbing her social media and changing her last name on Facebook. She ultimately deleted her Facebook account entirely following a deluge of social media conversation about her husband’s viral moment.