The IT company CEO captured in a broadly circulated video displaying him embracing an worker at a Coldplay concert has resigned.
Andy Byron resigned from his job as CEO of Cincinnati-based Astronomer Inc., in accordance with an announcement posted on LinkedIn by the company on Saturday (July 19, 2025).
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company stated in its put up on LinkedIn.
The transfer comes a day after the company stated that Mr. Byron had been positioned on depart and the board of administrators had launched a proper investigation into the jumbotron incident, which went viral. A company spokesman later confirmed in an announcement to AP that it was Mr. Byron and Astronomer chief individuals officer Kristin Cabot within the video.
The brief video clip exhibits Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot as captured on the jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, throughout a Coldplay concert on Wednesday (July 16, 2025).
Lead singer Chris Martin requested the cameras to scan the group for his “Jumbotron Song,” when he sings a couple of traces concerning the individuals the digital camera lands on.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” he joked.
Internet sleuths recognized the person because the chief government officer of a U.S.-based company and the girl as its chief individuals officer.
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer’s cofounder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO whereas the company conducts a seek for Byron’s successor.
It’s simple to overlook, however most concert venues have indicators informing the viewers that they may very well be filmed in the course of the occasion. Look for them on the partitions whenever you arrive and across the bar areas or bathrooms. It’s frequent apply particularly when bands like to make use of performances for music movies or concert movies.
The venue on this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, additionally has a privateness coverage on-line which states: “When you visit our location or attend or participate in an event at our location, we may capture your image, voice and/or likeness, including through the use of CCTV cameras and/or when we film or photograph you in a public location.”
“They probably would have got away with it if they hadn’t reacted,” stated Alison Taylor, a medical affiliate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. And by the point the alleged identities emerged on social media, it hit a traditional nerve round “leaders acting like the rules don’t apply to them,” she added.
Still, Mr. Taylor and others stress how shortly such a video result in an web search to seek out the individuals concerned — and word that it’s vital to do not forget that such “doxing” isn’t simply reserved for well-known individuals. Beyond somebody merely recognizing a well-known face and spreading the phrase, technological advances, such because the rising adoption of synthetic intelligence, has made it simpler and quicker general to seek out nearly anybody in a viral video at present.
“It’s a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track us — and how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction, to a gigantic surveillance system,” stated Mary Angela Bock, an affiliate professor within the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. “When you think about it, we are being surveilled by our social media. They’re tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.”
