Coldplay scandal logs new casualty: Astronomer HR chief resigns
As predicted last week, Kristin Cabot is out of a job after the reportedly married human resources chief at tech startup Astronomer was caught on a jumbotron at a Coldplay concert canoodling with her company’s married CEO, Andy Byron.
A rep for the AI company confirmed Thursday that Cabot had resigned her position as “Chief People Officer” at Astronomer, People reported. More than a week ago, on July 16, she and Byron attended a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium near Boston. When they turned up on the “kiss cam,” looking very hot for each other, frontman Chris Martin singled them out, then joked awkwardly that they might be having “an affair” when he and the 55,000 other people in the stadium saw the allegedly adulterous couple realize they were on the big screen. They immediately tried to hide their faces and duck out of view.
It turned out that both Cabot and Byron were indeed reportedly married to other people. Now, previously non-famous, they were immediately thrust into an unprecedented media firestorm that has seen them become the subject of internet memes and late-night jokes, including one involving Donald Trump. Neither has publicly commented on the scandal.
Byron, reported to be a father of two, tendered his resignation to the board of directors last weekend, while employment lawyers predicted that Cabot wouldn’t be able to stay in her job much longer.
That’s because she was in charge of the human resources department, which typically handles and oversees conflicts related to romantic relationships in the workplace.
“It’s horrible because she is the head of HR!” New York City-based employment lawyer William Cafaro told the New York Post last week. “She’s (allegedly) involved in an extramarital affair with the CEO. Basically, how much worse of an HR faux pas could you commit?”
“I would say she’s just about certain to be removed from her position, because how can you have someone in HR who is having an affair with the CEO imposing or making disciplinary decisions over any other employees. That’s ludicrous,” Cafaro also said.
On Monday, Pete DeJoy, the company’s new interim CEO, addressed the incident in a statement titled “Moving Forward at Astronomer.”
“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,” DeJoy wrote. “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.”
But he said that the employees of Astronomer “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.” He said that Astronomer was built by people “who live to solve hard problems” and who “care deeply about doing things the right way.” He said he was stepping into the role as CEO “with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers.”