"Everyone's Laughing": Astronomer's Ex-Staff After CEO's Kiss Cam Drama At Coldplay Concert

Andy Byron, the CEO of Cincinnati-based tech firm Astronomer, is facing sharp criticism from former employees after a viral video showed him sharing an intimate moment with a colleague during a Coldplay concert.

The clip, which emerged from a show at Gillette Stadium, captured Astronomer CEO Byron with his arms around the company's HR chief, Kristin Cabot. Cabot quickly turned away and covered her face, while Byron attempted to dodge the camera.

This triggered conversations among ex-employees, many of whom were not surprised, a former staffer told The New York Post.

"The text groups and chains of former employees are like...everybody's laughing and enjoying the hell out of what happened and him getting exposed," the former colleague said.

The same source, who once reported directly to Byron, described the tech boss as "sales-obsessed" and labelled his leadership style "toxic."

Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin initially mistook the couple's moment for a romantic interlude but quickly sensed something wasn't right.

"Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy," Martin remarked during the performance.

"I hope we didn't do something bad," Martin added, according to follow-up footage, before carrying on with his performance.

The Wrong Andy Caught In Coldplay Mix-Up

Meanwhile, another man, a namesake of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, was swept into the chaos. This Andy Byron, a video designer at Stylo Motion Design, became the accidental target of LinkedIn users who mistook him for the Astronomer CEO.

In a light-hearted post, he cleared the air on LinkedIn, saying, "No, this isn't me. I wouldn't be caught dead at a Coldplay concert."

He even tweaked his LinkedIn bio to state, "NOT THE GUY FROM THE COLDPLAY GIG!!"

Leaning into the humour, he added, "I'm the Andy Byron who makes videos for big screens, not the one who gets caught on them. If you want to make video content that goes viral for the right reasons, let's connect."

Byron joined Astronomer as CEO in July 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile, which appeared to have been removed following the incident. Under his leadership, the company recently raised $93 million in a funding round backed by Bain Capital, Salesforce, and other major investors.

According to public records, Byron is married to Megan Kerrigan Byron, while Cabot finalised her divorce from Kenneth Thornby in 2022, four years after filing in 2018.