22-07-2025
'Astronomer now a household name': New CEO issues first statement
The Coldplay concert last week drew major attention — however, this time it was not for the band's fan interaction, or their musical genius.
Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and the company's Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot were caught in a public storm as the two were featured on the jumbotron at the event, sharing a hug; once they saw themselves on the big screen, Cabot hid her face, and Byron ducked down.
Seeing their reaction, Chris Martin reportedly quipped, "Oh look at these two... either they're having an affair or they're very shy." With both parties reportedly married to other people, the moment fuelled viral memes, with brands cashing in on the controversy and sparked a fiery discussion online on privacy at public venues.
After the incident threw the company into the public spotlight, Byron resigned. While the company "begins a search for the next Chief Executive, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO," a statement issued by Astronomer said.
After stepping into his new role, DeJoy who called the spotlight "surreal" issued his first statement as interim CEO. Read his full statement here:
"Over the weekend, I stepped into the role of Interim CEO at Astronomer, a company that I've proudly poured my entire professional life into helping build.
Over the past few years, our business has experienced incredible growth. What was once a mission to help companies with Apache Airflow has turned into so much more. We're privileged to sit at the center of our customers' data & AI strategy, powering data pipelines behind in-game analytics of your favorite sports team, LLM powered chatbots for customer support, training AI for self-driving cars, and every mission-critical process in between.
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. From starting a software company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to keeping the lights on through the collapse of the bank that held all our cash, to scaling from 30 to 300 people during a global pandemic that demanded we do it all without ever being in the same room.
And yet, we're still here.
We're here because Astronomer is built by people who live to solve hard problems, stay late to fix what's broken, and care deeply about doing things the right way. We're here because our customers trust us with their most ambitious data & AI projects. And, most importantly, we're here because the mission is bigger than any one moment.
I'm stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers. Astronomer's foundation remains strong, built around the thriving Apache Airflow community. Our opportunity to build a DataOps platform for the age of AI remains massive. And our story is very much still being written.
To our team: thank you for your resilience & commitment to building something great. And to our community and customers: thank you for your trust. We won't let you down."
