He gone.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen something grip the internet like the cheating CEO at a Coldplay concert has these past few days. (He also had a pretty tight grip on the HR lady, but that’s beside the point).
I’m sure you’ve seen the video by now of Andy Byron, the CEO of tech company Astronomer, getting caught (allegedly) cheating on his wife with the company’s HR director Kristin Cabot during a Coldplay concert.
The viral clip shows Byron and Cabot cuddled up at the concert before getting exposed by the jumbotron camera operator. They quickly separated and tried to hide their faces, but by then the damage was already done. (Honestly their reaction made it way worse…he hit the ground and she ran away, making it clear that something was up). And not only that, they also got called out by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin:
“Oh look at these two. Oh come on, you’re okay. What? Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”
Well the video quickly went viral, and the jokes and memes quickly followed. Social media users found Byron’s wife and noticed that she removed her last name from her social media page before deactivating it altogether, and even several country artists like Morgan Wallen and Luke Bryan have made jokes about it during their own concerts:
@tcmyth @morganwallen is truly just one of the boys 😆🤟🏻 #morganwallen #glendaleaz #concerts #morganwallentiktok #fyp
So far the couple (or alleged couple) have remained silent, despite the fact that they’ve been the main characters on the internet for two days now.
But the company just issued a statement on the incident, announcing that they’ve opened an investigation into the incident, while also putting to bed a rumor that the shocked woman beside them was another Astronomer employee:
“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 Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.
Alyssa Stoddard was not at the event and no other employees were in the video. Andy Byron has not put out any statement, reports saying otherwise are all incorrect.”
And now, Byron has stepped down as CEO of the tech company.
In a statement, Astronomer says that their “standard was not met” and that Byron has tendered his resignation:
“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.
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.
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 and AI problems.”
I mean, it was really the only possible outcome. If he stayed on, not only would there be constant jokes and questions from employees about the boss sleeping with the HR lady, but the company would never escape being known as having the guy who cheated on his wife at a Coldplay concert as their CEO. Hard to do…whatever it is they do, with all that going on.
Let this be a lesson to everybody out there: Don’t listen to Coldplay.
