Astronomer chief people officer Kristin Cabot resigns following viral Coldplay concert video
Cabot's resignation comes days after Byron stepped down as CEO, with Pete DeJoy, Astronomer's cofounder and chief product officer, taking over as interim CEO.
The viral "Coldplay camera" incident, which has since sparked numerous memes and parodies, happened on Jul 16 at British rock band Coldplay's concert in Massachusetts, USA.
During a segment that saw Coldplay frontman Chris Martin interacting with concert attendees, the camera panned to Byron embracing Cabot.
Upon realising that they were on screen, the two immediately separated and avoided the camera, causing Martin to quip: "Either they're having an affair or they're very shy."
According to reports, Cabot and Byron are married to other people.
In a statement on LinkedIn on Monday (Jul 21), Pete DeJoy addressed the attention received by Astronomer since the incident, writing: "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."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
38 minutes ago
- Straits Times
CK Hutchison says may invite ‘major strategic investor' from China to join mega ports deal
Beijing has viewed the deal as a threat to its interests because it would transfer two ports along the strategically important Panama Canal to the BlackRock-backed group. HONG KONG – CK Hutchison Holdings said it may invite a 'major strategic investor' from China to join the buyer consortium in its plan to sell 43 ports, as investors regain confidence for the company's prospects of completing the troubled transaction. The unnamed investor would join as a significant member of the consortium, the company said in a stock exchange filing on July 28. 'Changes to the membership of the consortium and the structure of the transaction will be needed for the transaction to be capable of being approved by all relevant authorities,' CK Hutchison said, adding that it 'intends to allow such time as is required for such discussions.' Shares of the firm, which oscillated between gains and losses since the company first announced the deal on March 4, reached the highest this year on Friday (July 25) after Bloomberg News reported that state-owned China Cosco Shipping is set to join the buyer consortium that includes US asset manager BlackRock. Although a 145-day exclusivity window for talks between CK Hutchison and the original buyers' group lapsed on July 27, the company's confirmation that a Chinese investor will join is likely to boost expectations. Beijing has so far viewed the deal as a threat to its interests because it would transfer two ports along the strategically important Panama Canal to the BlackRock-backed group, which China sees as a proxy for American influence. US President Donald Trump hailing the transaction as a win for the United States did not help. 'Ongoing negotiations and the reported inclusion of Cosco Shipping in the consortium have likely eased concerns over Chinese regulatory hurdles, strengthening investor confidence in the deal's viability,' according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Not feasible for S'pore to avoid net‑zero; all options to cut energy emissions on table: Tan See Leng Singapore With regional interest in nuclear energy rising, S'pore must build capabilities too: Tan See Leng Singapore Sewage shaft failure linked to sinkhole; PUB calling safety time-out on similar works islandwide Singapore Workers used nylon rope to rescue driver of car that fell into Tanjong Katong Road sinkhole Singapore New Mandai North Crematorium, ash-scattering garden to open on Aug 15 World Three dead, several injured after train derails in Germany World US and EU clinch deal with broad 15% tariffs on EU goods to avert trade war Asia Displaced villagers at Thai-Cambodian border hope to go home as leaders set to meet for talks China separately warned the parties involved not to bypass antitrust reviews, so as to prevent them from rushing into a deal. As of last week, the buyers' group was considering China Cosco's demand for veto rights to secure Beijing's interests, Bloomberg News reported. CK Hutchison's shares, which shot up 37 per cent in the days following the sale announcement in March, saw political pressure wipe out all the gains in the space of a month. The stock started rallying again in June as investors flocked back after China Cosco came into play. The share price recovery shows investors are increasingly betting on Li Ka-shing, the 96-year-old founder of CK Hutchison, to seal the deal of his lifetime. If it goes through, the sale will net the group more than US$19 billion (S$24.3 billion) in cash. The renewed optimism is largely due to China Cosco's interest in playing a role in the buying consortium, alongside BlackRock and Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte's Terminal Investment. Challenges remain even as Cosco enters the discussions, David Blennerhassett, an analyst at Quiddity Advisors, wrote on financial analysis platform SmartKarma. That could reverse the current rhetoric and upset Mr Trump, who has a handful of issues already on his plate, he said. CK Hutchison's share price could also be under pressure should talks on the sale drag on, he added. Investors will be watching out for more answers to questions surrounding the deal, including what role the Chinese side will play in the consortium, said Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis. The controversial deal has also weighed on Mr Li and his family's other businesses. Younger son Richard's talks to expand his insurance business into mainland China have stalled after the ports deal upset Beijing, Bloomberg reported earlier in July. That followed another Bloomberg report in March that China told its state-owned firms to hold off on any new collaboration with businesses linked to the Li family. The original structure of the buyer consortium was designed to give the Aponte family-controlled Terminal Investment ownership of all the ports except the two in Panama, whose control will go to BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners unit. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
38 minutes ago
- Business Times
Toyota's internal inertia stifles digital transformation effort
[TOKYO] Inside Toyota Motor, a group of employees are worried about the company's future in an era when a car's software matters just as much as its sheet metal. The world's biggest automaker is known for churning out reliable cars such as clockwork, but it's been struggling to keep up with Elon Musk's Tesla, China's BYD and other frontrunners in the industry's shift towards electric vehicles (EVs) with sophisticated software. A somewhat obscure Toyota business unit called the Digital Transformation Promotion Department aims to change that. Established four years ago at the behest of then-chief executive officer and now chairman Akio Toyoda, the little-known group's mandate is to bring the carmaker up to speed by modernising it from within. The division's rank-and-file members are drawn from a wide cross-section of the corporate flow chart, everyone from R&D technicians to blue collar mechanics on factory floors. They all share a broad vision to introduce a more digitised future to a company with a stubbornly analogue culture. While they have managed to foster some changes, Toyota's core competency remains very much in hardware, with one foot in the world of EVs and its other planted in petrol-powered cars. That cautious approach has been key to the Japanese automaker's success so far. Yet it's also a source of frustration for some inside and outside the company who are pushing for quicker progress. 'Toyota sees the importance of software, but it's still slow,' said Kani Munidasa, chief executive officer of Code Crysalis, a Tokyo-based startup that's working with Toyota to put workers through Silicon Valley-style coding boot camps. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Lukewarm commitment Some advocates for a software-led rethink at Toyota have grown disillusioned by what they see as a lukewarm commitment to reform from within, according to sources familiar with the matter. They point to a recent decision to fold the Digital Transformation Promotion Department into a larger business unit, threatening to short-circuit its mission as a change agent. The division, which previously reported directly to chief executive officer Koji Sato, was absorbed by the Digital Information and Communication Group 'to accelerate the internal promotion of digital transformation', Toyota said. 'We aim to create new value and transform business by accelerating collaboration among the various infrastructures and the use of artificial intelligence,' it said. In some ways, a similar fate befell Toyota's effort to create a digitally-focused, quasi-independent subsidiary called Woven. Despite bold ambitions to usher in a 'software-first' approach to car manufacturing, in the end, Woven was quietly folded back into the corporate mothership in September 2023 after its American executive departed and its portfolio was downsized. While Toyota's software team is not directly involved in the development of the cars it sells, they have undertaken a number of projects focused on the company itself. That includes creating a database to keep track of the company's fleet of test cars, overhauling a system employees use to apply for time off, replacing whiteboards with touch screens on factory floors and deploying robots to deliver medicine inside Toyota's 527-bed company hospital in Aichi prefecture, according to sources familiar with the matter. Another project involved extending access for remote workers to computer assisted design software using a virtual desktop infrastructure in partnership with Nvidia Corp. 'Moving forward, our plan is to roll out similar systems not only to Toyota Motor but also to Toyota group companies,' Masanobu Takahisa, a Digital Transformation project general manager, was quoted as saying in a 2021 press release about the campaign. Those efforts might not be transformative, but they are notable in a company where scissors are banned in the office out of an abundance of safety-minded precaution, and erasable billboards are still used to keep employees informed at factories. Looming 'digital cliff' Toyota is not unique among Japanese companies. While the country dominates in some high-tech fields such as industrial robots, its business culture is known for clinging to fax machines and other bygone technologies. The government in Tokyo has warned about failing to surmount what it terms a 'digital cliff' separating Japan from other advanced economies. In March 2021, sitting across from union members during the final round of annual wage negotiations, Toyoda, scion of the founding family and then CEO, said he wanted to break down internal information silos and put the automaker's digital innovation on par with top global companies within three years. 'Inside Toyota, it's still the case that only people 'in the know' are considered valuable, and that knowledge only belongs to a small group,' he said. 'By moving forward with our digital transformation, we can rid ourselves of that inequity and build an environment where its easier for everyone to focus on their work.' The Toyota City-based carmaker hatched the Digital Transformation division to heed that call with a team of innovative minds looking to break down antiquated systems and practices. The idea was that, if all went well, that reform agenda would rub off on other parts of the company, boosting resiliency and productivity. But the progress has been piecemeal and the division is far from achieving its long-term goals, the sources familiar said. Former employees who spoke anonymously with Bloomberg described a workplace bound by conformity, with a paternalistic bureaucracy that values harmony over new ideas. One ex-employee joined Toyota because they were interested in autonomous driving, but instead felt trapped for several years doing quality control on mundane electronic parts. Toyota's global success, its record as the world's biggest automaker for five consecutive years and its status as Japan's biggest and most important company, has arguably created a self-enforcing inertia. Talk among employees of transferring or quitting usually triggered the same reaction: Why would anyone want to leave? It's not the only legacy carmaker struggling to adapt to modern technology. Volkswagen's Cariad software unit has been downsized following glitches and delays, while Ford Motor recently downgraded its next-generation advanced software project known as FNV4 by merging it with an existing architecture platform. That speaks to a larger issue involving the industry's ability to innovate fast enough to compete with the likes of Tesla and China's Xiaomi as well as Big Tech, which has moved aggressively into automotive dashboards with popular features such as Apple's CarPlay and Alphabet's Google Android operating system. Reinvention will not come easy for established automakers, said John Murphy, a senior automotive analyst at Bank of America. 'It goes into structures, platforms, technology, sort of the whole integrated operating system of a vehicle, I think, needs to be done differently,' he said. 'It's an uphill battle.' BLOOMBERG
Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
Investors revive interest in CK Hutchison despite deal delay
[HONG KONG] Investors are regaining enthusiasm for CK Hutchison Holdings despite a delay in the company's plan to sell 43 ports, with optimism fuelled by news that a Chinese shipping behemoth is finding its way into the global deal. Shares of CK Hutchison, which oscillated between gains and losses since the company first announced the deal on Mar 4, reached its highest this year on Friday (Jul 25) after state-owned China Cosco Shipping emerged as a potential new member of the buyer consortium that includes American asset manager BlackRock. Although a 145-day exclusivity window for talks between CK Hutchison and the buyers' group lapsed on Sunday, the possible involvement of China Cosco is boosting expectations that it would nudge the transaction forward. Beijing has so far viewed the deal as a threat to its interests because it would transfer two ports along the strategically important Panama Canal to the BlackRock-backed group, which China sees as a proxy for American influence. 'Ongoing negotiations and the reported inclusion of Cosco Shipping in the consortium have likely eased concerns over Chinese regulatory hurdles, strengthening investor confidence in the deal's viability,' according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong. China separately warned the parties involved not to bypass antitrust reviews, so as to prevent them from rushing into a deal. As at last week, the buyers' group was considering China Cosco's demand for veto rights to secure Beijing's interests, Bloomberg News reported. CK Hutchison's shares, which shot up 37 per cent in the days following the sale announcement in March, saw political pressure wipe out all the gains in the space of a month. The stock started rallying again last month as investors flocked back after China Cosco came into play. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The share price recovery shows investors are increasingly betting on Li Ka-shing, the 96-year-old founder of CK Hutchison, to seal the deal of his lifetime. If it goes through, the sale will net the group more than US$19 billion in cash. The renewed optimism is largely due to China Cosco's interest in playing a role in the buying consortium, alongside BlackRock and Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte's Terminal Investment. Smart move Initially hailed as a smart move by Li to exit a business caught up in global trade tensions, the deal quickly drew the ire of Beijing. With US President Donald Trump billing the transaction as the return of Panama Canal back to American influence, that did not help. Challenges remain even as Cosco enters the discussions, David Blennerhassett, an analyst at Quiddity Advisors, wrote on financial analysis platform SmartKarma. That could reverse the current rhetoric and upset Trump, who has a handful of issues already on his plate, he said. CK Hutchison's share price could also be under pressure should talks on the sale drag on, he added. Even with an extended timeline, revised terms or a partial agreement, uncertainty around the deal's value and timing would increase, said Bloomberg Intelligence's Wong. The delay may also fuel concerns about regulatory and policy challenges, she said. Investors will be watching out for more answers to questions surrounding the deal, including what role the Chinese side will play in the consortium, said Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis. The controversial deal has also weighed on Li and his family's other businesses. Younger son Richard's talks to expand his insurance business into mainland China have stalled after the ports deal upset Beijing, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. That followed another Bloomberg report in March that China told its state-owned firms to hold off on any new collaboration with businesses linked to the Li family. The original structure of the buyer consortium was designed to give the Aponte family-controlled Terminal Investment ownership of all the ports except the two in Panama, whose control will go to BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners unit. BLOOMBERG
