Astronomer officially has a new CEO, and he's speaking out.
The company earned overnight notoriety after its previous CEO, co-founder Andy Byron, was caught over the weekend having an apparent affair with one of his colleagues, Kristin Cabot, the company's Chief People Officer, at a Coldplay concert.
The executive has since tendered his resignation while Kristin has been placed on leave, and the company now is focused on moving forward with its newfound acclaim.
In a statement on LinkedIn, Pete DeJoy, fellow Astronomer co-founder who has stepped into the role of interim CEO, first said: "Over the weekend, I stepped into the role of Interim CEO at Astronomer, a company that I've proudly poured my entire professional life into helping build," and noted how the business "has experienced incredible growth" over the past few years.
Addressing Astronomer's recent virality, he then said: "The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter."
"The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team," he confessed, adding: "While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name."
"At Astronomer we have never shied away from challenges; a near-decade of building this business has tested us time and time again, and each time we've emerged stronger. From starting a software company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to keeping the lights on through the collapse of the bank that held all our cash, to scaling from 30 to 300 people during a global pandemic that demanded we do it all without ever being in the same room," he further reflected.
The new head then maintained: "I'm stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers."
"Astronomer's foundation remains strong, built around the thriving Apache Airflow community. Our opportunity to build a DataOps platform for the age of AI remains massive. And our story is very much still being written."
"To our team: thank you for your resilience & commitment to building something great. And to our community and customers: thank you for your trust. We won't let you down," he concluded.
In the wake of the viral incident, multiple outlets have confirmed that Andy is married to a woman named Megan Kerrigan, and the two have two children, reportedly boys.
Meanwhile, Kristin is also married with two kids, reportedly to Andrew Cabot, the owner of Privateer Rum.