Astronomer CEO Andy Byron went viral for all the wrong reasons at a recent Coldplay concert.
During Coldplay’s gig at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on July 16, the band used a Kiss Cam to showcase couples in the audience on the jumbotron — but Byron did not seem thrilled when he was caught with his arms around coworker Kristin Cabot. According to multiple news outlets, Andy is married to Megan Kerrigan Byron, not Cabot.
Viral footage showed Byron trying to duck out of camera range while Cabot — who is Astronomer’s Chief People Officer — hid her face, leading many viewers to subsequently speculate whether the coworkers may have been caught having an affair. (Us Weekly reached out to Astronomer and both executives for comment.)
Keep scrolling for everything to know about Byron:
1. He Has a Long Track Record in the Tech World
According to Byron’s now-deleted LinkedIn page, he graduated from Providence College in Rhode Island and has worked in the tech industry for more than 20 years. He was described as “a highly inspirational, motivational and experienced sales professional” in a comment on his deleted profile.
Byron joined Astronomer, the firm behind data orchestration and observability platform Astro, in 2023 as its CEO after previously serving as tech firm Lacework’s president from 2019 to 2022. Astronomer says its goal is to “empower your team to build, run and observe data pipelines that just work, all from one place.”
Mere months after Byron came on board Astronomer, the company announced “206 percent year-over-year growth” for Astro and touted the CEO’s work with major brands like Condé Nast and Electronic Arts.
“We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved in such a short span,” Byron said at the time. “This growth is not just a testament to our exceptional product but also to our dedicated team, our vision and the trust our customers place in us.”
2. He Personally Announced Cabot’s Hiring
In November 2024, Byron announced that Cabot was joining Astronomer as its new Chief People Officer. She came to the tech firm after four years in the same role for graph database management company Neo4j, where Astronomer said she’d helped the brand expand from “225 to 900 employees” and contributed to “50 percent year-over-year growth.”
“At Astronomer, our people are the most valuable asset in helping our customers do more to gain a competitive advantage with their data,” Byron said. “Kristin’s exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory. She is a proven leader at multiple growth-stage companies and her passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces makes her a perfect fit for Astronomer.”
3. Cabot Said She Was ‘Energized’ by Byron
When Cabot was hired by Astronomer, she mentioned feeling “energized” by her conversations with Byron throughout the hiring process.
“I prefer to think of my role as people strategy versus traditional human resources, as the real magic happens when you align the people strategy with the business strategy,” Cabot said in a statement in November 2024.
She went on, “There are plenty of companies out there where a leadership team doesn’t recognize the value that a strong people leader and people team can bring to a company. It’s not just about benefits or catered lunches. There’s so much more to it, and I was energized in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here.”
4. He Was Called Out in Front of the World
On July 16, the Astronomer coworkers had the deeply awkward experience of being caught on a Kiss Cam during Coldplay’s show at Gillette Stadium, which seats as many as 65,000 people. Shown on the big screen with his arms around Cabot’s waist, Byron quickly ducked out of camera range once he realized he was on the jumbotron.
As Coldplay fans flooded the scene to get on camera, Cabot could be seen holding her hand over her face and then turning around so she couldn’t be identified. Unfortunately for Cabot, it was already too late, as a clip of the moment soon went viral.
The footage was especially awkward since Coldplay frontman Chris Martin clearly noticed something was up. As Byron and Cabot ducked out of sight, Martin joked: “Oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy!”
He later quipped, “I hope we didn’t do something bad.”
5. His Wife Deleted Her Social Media
In the wake of the viral moment, social media users found Kerrigan Byron’s Facebook page. While many shared sympathetic comments and tried to uplift Kerrigan Byron, others poked fun at the situation in an insensitive way.
Kerrigan Byron ultimately deleted her Facebook account entirely after being bombarded with a deluge of social media conversation. Byron deleted his LinkedIn account shortly after he went viral as well.
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