He got the big kiss-off.<\/p>\n
Andy Byron\u00a0resigned Saturday as the CEO of the $1.3 billion AI company he helped found, Astronomer, just days after he was caught canoodling with his head of HR on a jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.<\/p>\n
Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot were caught canoodling at the Coldplay concert. Grace Springer via Storyful<\/p>\n
\u201cAs stated previously, 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,\u201d the company said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s board could have chosen to fire Byron,\u00a0leaving him with nothing, said sources who noted the resignation was likely his best course of action financially.<\/p>\n
Byron, 50,\u00a0and Kristin Cabot, 52, sparked a near-unprecedented viral storm when they were seen desperately dodging the kiss cam while cuddling at the concert near Boston Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
During the deer-in-the-headlights moment, Cabot quickly covered her face and Byron swiftly ducked out of view.<\/p>\n
Lead singer Chris Martin, thinking he had caught a tender moment, seemed confused before remarking, \u201cEither they\u2019re having an affair or they\u2019re very shy.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Thursday morning, the pair were identified as the high powered CEO and HR boss of a tech company.<\/p>\n
On Friday \u2014 the same day new video emerged of Byron and Cabot locking lips and embracing at the concert \u2014 their stunning downfall accelerated, as both were both placed on leave while Astronomer said it was investigating the debacle.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,\u201d according to Astronomer\u2019s statement. Grace Springer via Storyful<\/p>\n
Byron began negotiating an exit package after he was placed on leave Thursday, Axios reported. And an interim CEO, company co-founder Pete DeJoy, a Brooklynite, was named.<\/p>\n
Byron, estimated to be worth between $50 and $70 million, was paid\u00a0 between $469,000 and $690,000 a year, but received handsome performance-based bonuses.<\/p>\n
Cabot\u2019s future with the AI-driven data company remains unclear.<\/p>\n
Astronomer will start searching for its next chief executive while DeJoy leads the company.<\/p>\n
In a cheeky nod to the scandal, on Friday, DeJoy reportedly \u201cliked\u201d a LinkedIn post from Zachary Hensley \u2014 who was the vice president of technology and operations at Astronomer from 2019 to 2024 \u2014 in which Hensley admitted, \u201cYes, I\u2019ve laughed at the memes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Byron has resigned from his position as CEO at Astronomer, according to the company\u2019s statement. LinkedIn\/Andy Byron<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI,\u201d their Saturday statement said.<\/p>\n
Here is the latest on the CEO caught cheating on a Coldplay concert jumbotron<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer\u2019s cofounder, will serve as interim CEO as the company begins its search for a new chief executive. X\/ Pete DeJoy<\/p>\n
Astronomer was thriving in the months leading up to the incident, as it reportedly raised nearly $100 million from big investors and was rapidly growing.<\/p>\n
Byron\u2019s wife, Megan Kerrigan, 50, removed their shared last name from her Facebook profile before deleting it altogether after being inundated with messages about the alleged affair.<\/p>\n
Cabot is also believed to be married to Privateer Rum owner Andrew Cabot, 60.The couple were seen in a recent photo posing with two kids, with\u00a0Kristin\u00a0Cabot appearing to wear a wedding ring.<\/p>\n
A man who answered the door at the Massachusetts home of Kerrigan\u2019s mother angrily declined to comment Saturday, but one neighbor who knew the family praised them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kerrigans are salt of the earth, hardworking people and they don\u2019t deserve to be dragged through the mud,\u201d the neighbor told The Post.<\/p>\n
Andy Byron, Megan Kerrigan, Kristin Cabot and Andy Cabot could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear where both marriages stand in the wake of the high-profile scandal \u2013 before which, it appeared both families were living the American dream, complete with happy family photos and sprawling mansions.<\/p>\n
Less than five months ago, Cabot and her CEO husband bought a ritzy $2.2 million abode in the seaside town of Rye, NH.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Jared Downing, Lydia Moynihan and Samantha Olander<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He got the big kiss-off. Andy Byron\u00a0resigned Saturday as the CEO of the $1.3 billion AI company he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,33500,52320,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-76456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-coldplay","10":"tag-coldplay-concert-cheating-scandal","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-news","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114882250219386482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}