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Good news for Andy Byron:
The embattled Astronomer CEO will have a whole lot of time in the near future to attend as many concerts as he wants to!
In a decision made just days after Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot were caught canoodling while watching Coldplay perform in Massachusetts, the aforementioned company has placed both executives on leave.
Astronomer has done so along with making a statement of its own.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding,” the message on X read.
“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.”
During Coldplay’s concert in Boston this week, a camera swung around and caught Byron cuddling his HR boss, Kristin Cabot.
As the big screen focused on them, Byron quickly hid behind a barrier while Cabot covered her face with her hands. It was amazing.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy!” said lead singer Chris Martin as the crowd laughed loudly… and videos of the awkward moment spread quickly online.
The footage has grown into a huge internet topic because Byron is married with two kids, while Cabot leads the company’s human resources team.
In the past 24 hours, more than 22,000 news articles were written about Astronomer and roughly 9,000 were written about Byron, according to Muck Rack data.
“The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly,” concluded Astronomer today.
In the wake of what certainly appears to be a cheating scandal, Byron’s wife changed her last name on Facebook and then deleted her account.
Astronomer is the company behind Astro, “the industry-leading data orchestration and observability platform powered by Apache Airflow,” per its company website.
It was estimated to be worth between $1.2 and $1.3 billion after its Series D funding round in May 2025.