The incident was captured when Byron, who is married, appeared on a Coldplay concert's "kiss cam" embracing the company's head of human resources, Kristin Cabot. When the pair quickly tried to hide from the camera, Coldplay singer Chris Martin joked, "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy."
The video of the awkward incident went viral on social media at an alarming rate. According to Axios, citing Muck Rack data, over 22,000 news articles about the startup were published within 24 hours, including 9,000 about Byron himself.
Astronomer had initially announced that Byron had been placed on leave and that a formal investigation into the incident had begun. The company's co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Pete DeJoy, was temporarily appointed in his place. According to reports, Cabot has also been placed on leave.
"Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both behavior and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met," the company stated in an announcement. "The Board of Directors will begin the search for our next CEO as co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO."
Astronomer is a privately held data infrastructure and operations company that achieved "unicorn" status in 2022 with a valuation of $1 billion or more. The company, which until recently was relatively unknown, recently moved its headquarters to New York and secured $93 million in Series D funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.