Chief executive officer (CEO) Andy Baron of American tech company Astronomer resigned on Saturday after a video of him embracing an alleged colleague at a Coldplay concert went viral and fueled relentless memes.
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” New York-based Astronomer said in a statement shared on LinkedIn.
“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation,” the firm said, after previously launching an investigation.
The company added that Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy, who was assigned the role of interim CEO, will continue to serve in that position.
During a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts on Wednesday, the jumbotron zoomed in on a man and a woman embracing in the stands.
But the canoodling pair appeared shocked and horrified when they spotted themselves on the big screen, with the man ducking out of frame and the woman covering her face with her hands and spinning around.
“Uh-oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” joked Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
Within hours, internet sleuths tracked down the man as Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and said the woman was the company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, alleging that the two were having a not-so-discreet affair.
According to Reuters, a spokesman for the company said that the pair were the only employees of the firm caught on camera. The spokesman did not respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on Cabot’s job status.
The video has garnered millions of views on TikTok and other social media, giving rise to memes discussing everything from the folly of having an affair at a Coldplay concert, to the hypocrisy of an HR representative seemingly caught in a workplace relationship.
“The craziest thing is about the Astronomer CEO cheating scandal is it was the HR lady,” said one X user. “The person who would warn you against fraternising with coworkers.”
Furry mascots of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team jumped on the trend and recreated the scene for the jumbotron at a game after the video went viral.
However, an apology statement attributed to Byron, which spread rapidly online, was fake and appeared to have originated from a parody account.
