New Astronomer CEO says Coldplay scandal made company a 'household name'
Co-founder Pete DeJoy assumed the role of interim CEO after a viral video reportedly showed CEO Andy Byron and the company's chief people officer embracing on the Jumbotron during a July 18 show, according to the New York Times.
Following the scandal, the company announced via posts to X and LinkedIn that Byron had "tendered his resignation."
In a new LinkedIn post titled 'Moving Forward at Astronomer,' DeJoy broke his silence on the controversy with a more positive take on the situation.
New Astronomer interim CEO speaks on scandal
'The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,' DeJoy wrote in the Monday, July 21 post.
'The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name," he said.
'From starting a software company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to keeping the lights on through the collapse of the bank that held all our cash, to scaling from 30 to 300 people during a global pandemic that demanded we do it all without ever being in the same room,' DeJoy wrote. 'And yet, we're still here.'
Has Andy Byron spoken up about the scandal?
Byron has yet to publicly address the controversy or his leave of absence at Astronomer. The company has dismissed a recent fabricated statement impersonating Byron.
The video of the July 16 incident at Gillette Stadium has received more than 124 million views on TikTok alone.
The viral moment shows a man and a woman embracing each other before quickly letting go and ducking out of view when a "Kiss Cam" put them in the spotlight at the Foxborough, Massachusetts stadium.
'Uh oh, what? Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin quipped at the time.
Astronomer didn't specify exactly why Byron resigned but on LinkedIn wrote the company "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."
The company did not respond to USA TODAY's requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Astronomer CEO calls Coldplay scandal 'surreal' in first statement
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Caught on the jumbotron: How literature helps us understand modern-day public shaming
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Literary tradition offers some insight: intimate betrayal is never truly private. It shatters an implicit social contract, demanding communal scrutiny to restore trust. When trust crumbles publicly French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's notion of 'narrative identity' suggests we make sense of our lives as unfolding stories. The promises we make (and break) become chapters of identity and the basis of others' trust. Betrayal ruptures the framework that stitches private vows to public roles; without that stitch, trust frays. Byron's stadium exposure turned a marital vow into a proxy for professional integrity. Public betrayal magnifies public outcry because leaders symbolize stability; their personal failings inevitably reflect on their institutions. When Astronomer's board stated the expected standard 'was not met,' they were lamenting the collapse of Byron's narrative integrity — and, by extension, their company's. This idea — that private morality underpins public order — is hardly new. In Laws, ancient Greek philosopher Plato described adultery as a disorder undermining family and state. Roman philosopher Seneca called it a betrayal of nature, while statesman Cicero warned that breaking fides (trust) corrodes civic bonds. The social cost of infidelity in literature Literature rarely confines infidelity to the bedroom; its shockwaves fracture communities. French sociologist Émile Durkheim's idea of the 'conscience collective' holds that shared moral norms create 'social solidarity.' As literature demonstrates, violations of these norms inevitably undermines communal trust. Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1875-77) dramatizes the social fracture of betrayal. Anna's affair with Count Vronsky not only defies moral convention but destabilizes the aristocratic norms that once upheld her status. As the scandal leads to her ostracization, Anna mourns the social world she has lost, realizing too late that 'the position she enjoyed in society… was precious to her… [and] she could not be stronger than she was.' In Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), Emma Bovary's extramarital affairs unravel the networks of her provincial town, turning private yearning for luxury and romance into public contagion. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) makes this explicit: Hester Prynne's scarlet 'A' turns her sin into civic theatre. Public shaming on the scaffold, the novel suggests, delineates moral boundaries and seeks to restore social order — a process that prefigures today's 'digital pillories,' where viral moments subject individuals to mass online judgment and public condemnation. Domestic crumbs and digital scaffolds Contemporary narratives shift the setting but uphold the same principle: betrayal devastates the mundane rituals that build trust. 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CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
Astronomer chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, resigns after viral Coldplay video
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CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
Astronomer chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, resigns after viral Coldplay video
Music Social mediaFacebookTweetLink Follow Kristin Cabot, the chief people officer of Astronomer, has resigned, the company confirmed to CNN Thursday. The resignation comes after Cabot, who oversaw the organization's human resources, and Andy Byron, the then-chief executive of the New York-based tech company, were spotted embracing at a Coldplay concert earlier this month. Byron resigned last week after being placed on leave, according to an earlier statement shared with CNN. The two were seen on a Jumbotron screen – a so-called 'kiss cam' – at a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, last week, embracing before separating and ducking out of view. 'Whoa, look at these two,' Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipped at the time. 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy.' The video of the two quickly went viral online, along with alleged statements from the ex-CEO acknowledging the situation. Astronomer, however, said on LinkedIn that Bryon had not put out any statement and 'reports saying otherwise are all incorrect.' That statement also addressed the misidentification of a third person seen in the viral clip. '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,' the statement also read. The data operations company, founded in 2018, acknowledged in a separate statement that 'awareness of our company may have changed overnight,' but its mission would continue to focus on addressing data and artificial intelligence problems. The company said Astronomer's co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Pete DeJoy, would serve as interim CEO. Byron's LinkedIn account is no longer public, and he was removed from the company's leadership page following the announcement, which now lists co-founder DeJoy as CEO. CNN's Lisa Respers France and Auzinea Bacon contributed to this report.