Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigns Following Viral Coldplay Concert Incident

SAN FRANCISCO – July 19,2025 – Astronomer,a technology company that recently garnered notable public attention due to an incident involving its CEO at a Coldplay concert,announced Saturday that CEO Andy Byron has resigned. The company’s board of Directors has accepted his resignation.

“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,” Astronomer stated in a released statement. “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.”

The controversy erupted when Byron was captured on a large screen at a Coldplay concert on Wednesday,with his arms around Kristin Cabot,the company’s chief people officer. Byron, who is married, appeared to attempt to hide when the couple was displayed.Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin humorously remarked, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” A video of the moment, recorded by a concert attendee, later went viral across social media platforms.

Prior to this incident, Astronomer had announced in May that it had secured $93 million in a Series D funding round.this investment was led by Bain Ventures and included participation from other investors, such as Salesforce Ventures.

Byron’s departure follows Astronomer’s announcement on Friday that it had initiated a “formal inquiry” into the matter, during which the CEO was placed on administrative 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 company’s Saturday statement continued. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”