Note: Astronomer’s Oscar-worthy Gwyneth Paltrow video would not have been possible if they had kept the CEO and tried to do damage control The ick of his disgrace would’ve stuck around like mildew, while he mobilized company resources to protect his personal reputation Replacing him was the only way forward
Lulu Cheng Meservey
Lulu Cheng Meservey17.7.2025
Thoughts for the @astronomerio team Don’t bother with crisis comms here. The CEO will try to get you to protect him, but it’s not his company. He’s a temporary steward. Your job is to protect the company The CEO is a professional manager who’s only been there two years, the HR person has been there less than a year, neither is tied to the identity of the company Preserving trust is more important. Your business model is to handle sensitive data and your priority is scaling, and that’s tough to do with multiple known liars on the senior leadership team A better comms plan than trying to save this situation: Andy Byron is on the board, but he’s not a founder and doesn’t have control. The other five board members should replace him You can then use the new CEO announcement as a reset, and get people to focus again on Astronomer’s actual business instead of its drama
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