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Astronomer CEO Pete DeJoy addresses Coldplay concert scandal, sets focus on future
DeJoy, stepping into the leadership role under intense scrutiny, broke his silence in a detailed statement on LinkedIn
In the wake of the incident, Astronomer’s board of directors appointed co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy as interim CEO, with a search now underway for a permanent replacement.
The Coldplay concert in Boston may have been intended as a night of music and memories — but for data and AI startup Astronomer, it turned into an unexpected PR crisis. The now-viral moment that captured former CEO Andy Byron and the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer Kristin Cabot in a cozy embrace on the kiss cam has not only triggered internet-wide chatter but also major shifts within the organization.
As the video of Byron and Cabot — both top executives at the Ohio-based firm — made rounds online, speculation of an affair soon followed. The clip showed the two embracing, only to pull apart abruptly upon noticing they were being broadcast on the venue’s big screen. The fallout was immediate. Byron was placed on leave, a formal investigation was announced, and just a day later, his resignation was confirmed.
In the wake of the incident, Astronomer’s board of directors appointed co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy as interim CEO, with a search now underway for a permanent replacement.
DeJoy, stepping into the leadership role under intense scrutiny, broke his silence in a detailed statement on LinkedIn, describing the media attention as “unusual and surreal.” While acknowledging the bizarre circumstances, he emphasized his commitment to Astronomer’s mission, its people, and its customers.
Below is Pete DeJoy’s full LinkedIn statement, unchanged and in his own words:
“Over the weekend, I stepped into the role of Interim CEO at Astronomer, a company that I’ve proudly poured my entire professional life into helping build.
Over the past few years, our business has experienced incredible growth. What was once a mission to help companies with Apache Airflow has turned into so much more. We’re privileged to sit at the center of our customers’ data & AI strategy, powering data pipelines behind in-game analytics of your favorite sports team, LLM powered chatbots for customer support, training AI for self-driving cars, and every mission-critical process in between.
The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world—ever encounter. The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.
At Astronomer we have never shied away from challenges; a near-decade of building this business has tested us time and time again, and each time we’ve emerged stronger. From starting a software company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to keeping the lights on through the collapse of the bank that held all our cash, to scaling from 30 to 300 people during a global pandemic that demanded we do it all without ever being in the same room.
And yet, we’re still here.
We’re here because Astronomer is built by people who live to solve hard problems, stay late to fix what’s broken, and care deeply about doing things the right way. We’re here because our customers trust us with their most ambitious data & AI projects. And, most importantly, we’re here because the mission is bigger than any one moment.
I’m stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers. Astronomer’s foundation remains strong, built around the thriving Apache Airflow community. Our opportunity to build a DataOps platform for the age of AI remains massive. And our story is very much still being written.
To our team: thank you for your resilience & commitment to building something great. And to our community and customers: thank you for your trust. We won’t let you down.”
While Byron’s exit was swift, it’s notable that Kristin Cabot continues to remain at Astronomer, though the company has not issued any further comment on her status. Byron, meanwhile, had briefly become one of the most searched names on Google in the immediate aftermath of the kiss cam clip going viral — an ironic twist for a data infrastructure company typically operating far from the limelight.
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