Astronomer CEO Resigns After Kiss-Cam Scandal. Here's How the Company (and Coldplay) Responded. 'Before This Week, We Were Known as a Pioneer' While Chief Executive Andy Byron resigned, Coldplay made fun of the situation at their next show.
By David James
It was the Coldplay kiss cam moment that caused cringes around the world.
The CEO of Astronomer, a private data infrastructure startup that reached "unicorn" status in 2022, and his head of human resources, were caught on camera in a not-so-work-appropriate moment that has since gone mega-viral. The two executives, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot, are facing public (and workplace) backlash.
In a statement on Saturday, the company said that Byron has resigned. Here's what we know.
What happened at the Coldplay concert?
Last week at Gillette Stadium near Boston, a popular segment of Coldplay's show took an unexpected turn. The band's camera crew singles out people in the crowd and puts them up on the jumbotron, and lead singer Chris Martin improvises a song. This time around, the camera landed on a snuggling couple who quickly tried to hide their faces. Martin quipped, "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy."
A video of the moment quickly went viral, and as the video spread, it revealed that Martin was right. The man in the video was Byron, and the woman was the company's human resources chief, Cabot. The problem? Byron is married to someone else.
Now the moment has taken on a life of its own, even being copied at sports games.
Coldplay, meanwhile, responded over the weekend by lightly making fun of the situation, letting the audience know, in very clear terms, that they could be "put on camera, on the big screen."
Has Astronomer responded?
On Saturday, the company posted a statement on X saying that Byron has resigned, after previously saying on Friday that Byron was put on leave.
"Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI," the statement says. "While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not."
"Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted," it continues.
Axios reports that Cabot was also placed on leave on Friday.
Previously, an Astronomer spokesperson told Newsweek and the New York Post that a supposed apology from Byron, which had been circulating online, was fake.
Related: IBM Replaced Hundreds of HR Workers With AI, According to Its CEO
The fake apology from Byron was posted on X, with the imposter writing that they wanted to apologize to his wife, family, and colleagues, and noted, "I am a Coldplay fan. And not just of the first two albums. I also like the recent stuff."
Another fake post, attributed to Coldplay, read: "Starting with our next show, we're introducing camera-free audience sections for people and their sidepieces."
How does a CEO scandal like this affect the workplace?
The incident creates potential legal troubles and a crisis of leadership for the company, David Rice, HR expert at People Managing People, told BIZ Experiences via email.
"The big issue is the example that it sets. Obviously, a CEO should know better. But the fact that it's with the chief people officer is even worse," Rice wrote. "She should definitely know better, and that is going to lead to a complete mistrust in HR, no matter what happens next."
"Both are on the hook here, and no online apology is going to make this go away," says Rice, pointing out why companies need to have very clear HR policies about inter-office relationships and the consequences of not adhering to them.
