It was the Coldplay kiss cam second that prompted cringes world wide.
The CEO of a unicorn tech firm and his head of human assets have been caught on digicam in a not-so-work-appropriate second that has since gone viral. Now the 2 executives, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Chief Individuals Officer Kristin Cabot, are dealing with public (and office) backlash.
What occurred on the Coldplay live performance?
On Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium close to Boston, a well-liked section of Coldplay’s present took an sudden flip. The band’s digicam crew singles out individuals within the crowd and places them up on the jumbotron, and lead singer Chris Martin improvises a music. This time round, the digicam landed on a snuggling couple who shortly tried to cover their faces. Martin quipped, “Both they’re having an affair or they’re simply very shy.”
A video of the second shortly went viral, and because the video unfold, it revealed that Martin might need been on to one thing. The person within the video was Byron, and the girl was the corporate’s human assets chief, Cabot. The issue? Byron is married to another person.
What’s Astronomer?
Astronomer is a personal information infrastructure startup that reached “unicorn” standing in 2022 with a $1 billion or extra analysis.
In line with the corporate’s LinkedIn web page, “Astronomer empowers information groups to convey mission-critical analytics, AI, and software program to life.”
Has Astronomer responded?
On Friday night, Astronomer posted on X that Byron has been positioned on go away.
Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy is at present serving as interim CEO given Andy Byron has been positioned on go away.
We’ll share extra particulars as applicable within the coming days. pic.twitter.com/VfgWPnfycl
— Astronomer (@astronomerio) July 19, 2025
Axios experiences that Cabot was additionally positioned on go away whereas the corporate investigates the matter.
Beforehand, an Astronomer spokesperson informed Newsweek and the New York Put up {that a} supposed apology from Byron, which had been circulating on-line, was pretend.
The pretend apology from Byron was posted on X, with the imposter writing that they needed to apologize to his spouse, household, and colleagues, and famous, “I’m a Coldplay fan. And never simply of the primary two albums. I additionally just like the latest stuff.”
One other pretend put up, attributed to Coldplay, learn: “Beginning with our subsequent present, we’re introducing camera-free viewers sections for individuals and their sidepieces.”
Associated: IBM Changed A whole bunch of HR Staff With AI, In line with Its CEO
How does a CEO scandal like this have an effect on the office?
The incident creates potential authorized troubles and a disaster of management for the corporate, David Rice, HR skilled at Individuals Managing Individuals, informed Entrepreneur through e mail.
“The large challenge is the instance that it units. Clearly, a CEO ought to know higher. However the truth that it is with the chief individuals officer is even worse,” Rice wrote. “She ought to undoubtedly know higher, and that’s going to guide to a whole distrust in HR, it doesn’t matter what occurs subsequent.”
“Each are on the hook right here, and no on-line apology goes to make this go away,” says Rice, mentioning why firms have to have very clear HR insurance policies about inter-office relationships and the results of not adhering to them.
It was the Coldplay kiss cam second that prompted cringes world wide.
The CEO of a unicorn tech firm and his head of human assets have been caught on digicam in a not-so-work-appropriate second that has since gone viral. Now the 2 executives, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Chief Individuals Officer Kristin Cabot, are dealing with public (and office) backlash.
What occurred on the Coldplay live performance?
The remainder of this text is locked.
Be a part of Entrepreneur+ right this moment for entry.
