Astronomer’s interim CEO addressed the general public for the primary time since taking on for his scandal-laden predecessor Andy Byron. Pete DeJoy, who co-founded the tech unicorn, was named interim head of the corporate over the weekend after Byron resigned his submit.
Byron’s resignation got here on the heels of a kiss cam video at a Coldplay live performance that confirmed him embracing the agency’s HR head, Kristin Cabot. Byron, who’s married, and Cabot tried to cover from the cameras, making a viral web second.
After the clip unfold, Byron was positioned on depart whereas the board launched a proper investigation into his conduct. DeJoy, Astronomer’s then chief product officer, was tapped for the nook workplace in his absence. Byron resigned his submit on Saturday.
“The occasions of the previous few days have obtained a degree of media consideration that few corporations—not to mention startups in our small nook of the info and AI world—ever encounter,” DeJoy wrote on LinkedIn Monday. “The highlight has been uncommon and surreal for our crew and, whereas I might by no means have wished for it to occur like this, Astronomer is now a family title.”
DeJoy, a graduate of Bowdoin Faculty, co-founded Astronomer in 2017. The corporate has since grown right into a profitable non-public information infrastructure and operations firm that achieved unicorn standing in 2022 with a $1 billion or extra valuation. He underscored his dedication to the corporate’s prospects and workers in his Monday message, thanking these working on the firm for his or her resilience and Astronomer’s purchasers for his or her belief.
“Our story may be very a lot nonetheless being written,” he wrote.
