For a minute there on Friday, the internet brought the world together.
The CEO of a tech company was caught on a “kiss cam” cuddling the Human Resources director of the same company. Their immediate reaction to cover their cases gave it away, as Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin said: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The short clip spread like wildfire, spawning thousands of memes and sparking numerous conversations.
At the centre of it all: a CEO, an affair, a human resources director, one of the world’s biggest bands, and a company that few people had heard of but will now forever be associated with 15 seconds of viral footage: Astronomer.
This should be a story about governance and a cautionary tale around what can go wrong.
So let’s talk about Astronomer, forever known now as the “kiss cam” company.
Andy Byron resigned from his job at Astronomer on Sunday, with the Board accepting his resignation and appointing the company’s co-founder Pete DeJoy as interim CEO as they search for a new leader.
The chief people officer he replaced at the Massachusetts Coldplay concert, Kristin Cabot, has so far not resigned – nor been placed on leave, as Byron was prior to his resignation.
A quick scan of the leadership team reveals a notable underrepresentation of women, with Cabot being the only female member among the 11-person leadership team. The website no longer features Andy Byron, and instead lists the new interim CEO Dejoy.
There are no women among the five-person board of directors, which appears to be composed of representatives from the firm’s key investors.
As Forbes Editor in Chief Sarah O’Carroll said on LinkedIn on seeing there was just one woman out of 16 among leadership and the board of directors: “Scandal often thrives in cultures where power goes unchecked, and when a CEO build a leadership team with zero regard for balance at the table, you can safely bet accountability and integrity aren’t top of the old agenda.”
Cabot had joined Astronomer in late 2024, with Byron sharing in a statement that she was “a proven leader at multiple growth-stage companies and her passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces makes her a perfect fit for Astronomer.”
She appears to have been the first woman on the leadership team.
The Astronomer board did one thing right: it acted quickly in launching an investigation and immediately placing the CEO on leave.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company declared on a LinkedIn post.
“Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space. While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not.”
Unfortunately, what the company will forever be more known for is its management and the scandal at the top of the chain that went viral.
And it should serve as a cautionary tale for every other such fast-growing business. Yes, relationships happen. Affairs happen. But a CEO and an HR director, who also happens to be the sole woman in the leadership team? There are many questions to ask regarding how Astronomer arrived at this point and what a more representative board and leadership team could have offered.
The 15-second footage was filmed by Grace Springer from the audience, who uploaded it to her TikTok account, where it amassed more than 100 million views in a couple of days. She’s since said she feels bad for “turning these people’s lives upside down. But play stupid games… win stupid prizes.”
It was a foolish move by the CEO – engaging in an affair with his human resources director and then testing the limits of how public they could go, by attending a concert with thousands of others.
And it’s a stupid game of governance when companies fail to see the full consequences of the representation they lack.