Astronomer CEO resigns after viral Coldplay incident

Astronomer, the tech company that found itself launched into the public eye after its CEO was spotted on a Jumbotron video at a Coldplay concert earlier this week embracing an employee, issued a statement about the matter via LinkedIn. (@calebu2/TMX via CNN Newsource)

Andy Byron, the chief executive of New York-based tech company Astronomer, has resigned from his role after he was spotted embracing an employee at a Coldplay concert, according to a statement shared with CNN on Saturday.

Astronomer’s board of directors accepted Byron’s resignation and will begin searching for its next CEO, according to the statement.

Following the viral video of Byron, alleged statements from Byron acknowledging the situation began to circulate online. Astronomer said in an earlier LinkedIn post that Byron “has 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 clip circulating on the internet in the day following the video’s release.

CNN was unable to contact Byron for comment.

On Wednesday, Byron was seen with Kristin Cabot, the company’s chief people officer, on the “kiss cam” screen at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, before both ducked out of view.

“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 said Saturday.

The data operations company, which was founded in 2018, acknowledged that “awareness of our company may have changed overnight,” but its mission would continue to be focused on addressing data and artificial intelligence problems.

The company on Friday 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.

Byron is still listed on the company’s website as a member of the board of directors.

Lisa Respers France, CNN