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Plus: Lessons From The Coldplay Kiss Cam Scandal

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The biggest business story of the last week has had nothing to do with tariffs, M&A, finance or earnings. It’s a relatively minor scandal. And since we’re all online, we’ve all seen it more times than we care to count: Former Astronomer CEO Andy Bryon was caught on camera at a Coldplay concert canoodling with the company’s Chief People Officer Kristen Cabot. 

On Friday, both Bryon and Cabot were placed on leave pending an investigation from the company’s board. On Saturday, Bryon resigned. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said on X. Chief Product Officer and cofounder Pete DeJoy is taking over as interim CEO while Bryon’s replacement is sought.

Astronomer’s company name has been dragged through the mud, though the vast majority of people sharing the image of Bryon and Cabot probably could not even describe what the company does. Astronomer is a company that uses Apache Airflow to manage data operations, helping companies leverage data for AI integration, application development and unlock deeper insights. The company closed a $93 million Series D round in May, led by Bain Capital Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. The press release detailing the funding round highlights several key accomplishments over the past 12 months: 150% year-over-year recurring revenue growth, 130% net revenue retention, and a two-year path to profitability. The company was valued at more than $1 billion at the time of the funding round.

Will the new exposure and speedy investigation ultimately bring Astronomer more business? Or will Bryon and Cabot’s viral moment cost the company customers? It’s doubtful on both counts. As a B2B tech company, Astronomer’s external reputation probably won’t come into play. And in a few months the general public may still be talking about the Coldplay kiss cam moment, but they most likely won’t be talking about Astronomer as a company. Will the viral moment make fundraising more difficult? Potentially, since company leaders are the ones who need to steward new money, and poor personal choices of former executives may reflect badly on the board members and leaders who hired them in the first place. 

This serves as a reminder that executives always represent their companies–even during off-hours. This viral moment might have been forgotten by now if it didn’t involve two leaders of a company. Byron and Cabot’s positions add a layer of gawking and gossip, bringing a tech company into many conversations where it never would have found itself otherwise. 

Even as the global economy has grown more cautious and uncertain, Unilever has been on a steady path. I spoke with Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA and CEO of its Personal Care division, about the company’s growth and plans for the future. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

Megan Poinski Staff Writer, C-Suite Newsletters

Follow me on Forbes.com

In today’s CEO newsletter:
  • First Up: The economy looks healthy, but problems may loom in the distance
  • Notable News: Tax deductions for office snacks are running out
  • Tomorrow’s Trends: How Unilever keeps up with trends, the economy, and a huge team of employees
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
What cautious economy? Looking at the top-line financial numbers from last week, stocks surged as many companies reported better-than-expected profits. The S&P 500 set a new record high on Thursday, as 88% of companies reporting earnings so far this quarter exceeded expectations. Unemployment claims hit 221,000 last week, down 7,000 from the week before, and June’s retail sales were up 0.6% over May, writes Forbes senior contributor Pamela Danziger.

Despite all of these positive numbers, however, tariffs are still waiting in the wings, writes Forbes senior contributor Erik Sherman. According to President Donald Trump’s latest deadlines,  many of them will start on August 1, and could begin to impact the prices companies and consumers pay soon thereafter. Countries and companies are working to figure out how to blunt the majority of the impact when they come, the Washington Post reports. 

Meanwhile, Forbes senior contributor Jim Osman writes that there is a distressing sign coming from consumers: 5.1% of all car loans are delinquent, marking a 15-year high in subprime loan delinquencies. Osman writes car loans tend to be the last payment Americans skip. When times are tight, they may miss a credit card, utility, mortgage or rent payment, but vehicles tend to be the last thing they will risk losing. Osman writes that credit stress is spreading as household debt increases, while credit card and buy-now, pay-later companies tighten their standards.

NOTABLE NEWS
A common office perk is losing its tax deduction, thanks to the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act. In Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, food and drinks in the office will cost companies more starting on January 1, writes Forbes’ Kelly Phillips Erb. Office coffee, snacks and employee meals got a 50% tax break under Trump’s signature 2017 financial policy bill, but it expires at the end of this year. The perk did not get renewed in the latest policy bill. (Unless you work on a fishing vessel in Alaska or a restaurant, that is.) The end of the deduction will raise $32.5 billion over the next decade, Erb writes—a relatively small increase in revenue, considering the bill includes tax cuts adding up to $4.475 trillion in the next decade.

The question now facing companies is whether to continue stocking the office kitchen with goodies. A 2023 survey found that eight in 10 employees said catered meals encouraged them to come into the office, and 98% said free meals at work makes them feel appreciated. But considering the other internal cost issues that may be at play in 2026, it could be difficult for companies to choose a non-deductible employee perk. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
There are many challenges to enterprise AI deployment, including how to best use it. OpenAI is reportedly getting into this space. The Information recently reported that the provider is offering enterprise-grade GPT-4o deployments staffed with its engineers at a starting price of $10 million, writes Forbes contributor Sol Rashidi. Consulting can yield higher margins of 40% to 60%, Rashidi writes. OpenAI isn’t the only AI provider rushing into consulting. Google, Meta and Anthropic are all trying to augment their tools with deployment assistance. And while it is pricey to add deployment services on top of the platform agreement and software access, some companies may find it worthwhile to guarantee a smooth integration with AI systems.

OpenAI is adding more to its offerings, launching its ChatGPT Agent last week. The agent is a virtual assistant that can complete work and various simple tasks, such as creating slide decks from notes, purchasing ingredients from a recipe or submitting expense reports. It will be available on enterprise plans in coming weeks, the company said.

Unilever USA President and CEO of Personal Care Herrish Patel.   Unilever
TOMORROW’S TRENDS
Unilever’s Secret To Growth: Looking Forward, Working Together And Serving All Customers
Herrish Patel has worked for Unilever, one of the world’s largest CPG companies, for 24 years. In nearly a quarter century, the global company specializing in beauty, personal care, home care, food products and ice cream has taken Patel and his family around the globe, giving him a multifaceted perspective on how to innovate and grow already-strong brands. He became the president of Unilever USA and the CEO of its Personal Care division in 2024. I spoke with him about how he’s growing brands that are already in 98% of American homes, plus how he strengthens his team at a company that is an international behemoth. 

This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.

What is your strategy to build the U.S. market and getting to growth?

Patel: It starts with the trends that are going to shape the U.S. I’m a big believer that the role of leadership teams in your categories is to predict where a category is going to be in three years from now. I call it getting to the future faster, or take the organization to the future and then bring them back. 

If I look at personal care and where it will be in three to five years, there’s certain segments, like whole body deodorants. The reality is, over the last couple of years, some insurgent brands brought to life the idea that we sweat beyond the armpit, and it’s built a whole new leg to the category, to a segment that could be $500 million going forward. 

The second piece is serum technology. We invented bar [soap] in a way. We then went into liquids. The next frontier will be serum technology, which is starting to converge the next generation of moisturization and body wash. Again, technology led. 

Lastly, you see it on TikTok and social media, people are looking for mood transportation through showers through neural signaling. We’re making an adjacency move on a brand called Olly, a vitamin supplement brand full of scientific claims and a sense that is good for karma, it’s good for mood.

We are obsessed about having the science and technology, the right packaging, the right communication platform. That’s the first thing that is at the heartbeat of the business, and we’re obsessed about being market makers, category builders.

The second piece is you work with the biggest retailers in the U.S. to be a category leader. You act like a category leader, you show up like a category leader and you start to share how you’re going to build the category over multiple years through your marketing and science investments. We’ve shared this U.S.-for-U.S. [A recent quote said] it’s like a new Unilever that’s agile, it’s fast and it’s moving with consumer trends which move fast in the U.S.

You mentioned team building. How do you do that with a company that is as large as Unilever?

In Personal Care, we call it ‘Making it personal.’ 

Once you have your strategy and your big bets, you build a structure to be in service to the strategy. Then strategy, structure and sourcing. Sourcing is the talent. There’s also a strategic position. You’ve built a team first that is designed to deliver the strategic position of Unilever. We serve 98% of American households, so we are going to move categories forward.

The second piece that I’m a big fan of, is what I call wasting time together. It means that you invest and spend time getting to know the team. Trust and unity comes when you know beyond the face: what’s important in their lives, family, friends, how they grew up. That shapes some of the behaviors you see. 

Thirdly, once you’ve got a structure, you waste time, you build trust. We call it objectives, key results, OKRs. I call them mountains we’re trying to climb. Behind that strategy’s three or four mountains, we constantly sit and review where we are on that mountain, what have we learned, what we want to adjust. Then we work as a team to say the next stage of that mountain looks X or Y. 

Yesterday, we sat for a whole day as a leadership team and did exactly that. What are we celebrating? What is the strategic progress we’re making? Is the organization running to its potential? What are some of the leadership learnings, and where do we need to inspire and move the organization forward? 

I call it hardware and software. 50% is hardware, is strategy. 50% is software, and making sure the team is united in that journey.

Right now we are in a period of economic uncertainty, and it’s hard to forecast anything. How does that impact Unilever?

We see the recession as an opportunity, [rather] than more of a threat. What we will see is a polarization where people will seek value, while some consumers will still seek premiumization. From a U.S. perspective, we’ve got a portfolio that serves brilliant value, but we’ve also got a premium portfolio. 

As it continues to polarize, we’ve got a portfolio—I call it how you win the recession. We consciously talk about it. How do you come out stronger from the recession? That takes leadership, it takes a point of view. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong, but it’s important to have a strong point of view. That you take the moment where there might be some economic uncertainty for maybe two or three quarters, but we come out stronger as a consequence.

What advice would you give to other business executives?

This is a really important time of leadership. I think it is the time to reflect on who we are, what we stand for, and make sure that we continue to serve the U.S. with the latest innovations and grow our businesses. 

Personally, I think this is a moment of your own values, your own leadership style, and how you continue to adjust to lead the organization through it. I think the future is really bright in the U.S., so I think the economic outlook long-term, mid-term, will be very strong. 

What I’m inspired by is the thousands that work for Unilever U.S. still wake up wanting to make an impact at 98% of US households. That’s my job. How do I create an environment where everyone can flourish and maximize their potential? And that's what I do every day. My reflective moment is how can I lead to create that environment, to serve all of America, and my people are inspired to do it; they believe they have an impact.

COMINGS + GOINGS
  • Biotech and pharmaceutical company Avantor appointed Emmanuel Ligner as its next president and CEO, effective August 1. Ligner steps into the role from Cerba HealthCare where he was CEO, and he will succeed Michael Stubblefield.
  • Measurements and positioning firm Hexagon hired Anders Svensson as its new president and CEO, effective July 20. Svensson succeeds Norbert Hanke, who had served as interim president and CEO since November 2024.
  • Entertainment and dining chain Dave & Buster’s tapped Tarun Lal to be its next chief executive officer, effective July 14. Lal joins the company after more than 25 years with Yum! Brands, where he worked as KFC U.S. president.
Send us C-suite transition news at forbescsuite@forbes.com.
STRATEGIES + ADVICE
CEOs make big decisions every day, and many have a distinct decision-making style. Here are some ChatGPT prompts to help an AI system understand what are the most important factors to you, essentially cloning your thought process to speed up future decisions.

AI seems to be taking over everything, which can be both energizing and exhausting. Here’s how to recognize when you and your workplace are suffering from AI fatigue, and how to work around it so that you can take advantage of the technology and save your sanity.

QUIZ
A pending M&A deal was called off last week, when the acquiring company accused the company it was hoping to buy of a “lack of constructive engagement.” Which company is back on the market?
A.Wiz
B.US Cellular
C.7-Eleven
D.Kellanova
Check if you got it right here.