Broadcom’s Fine, Lenovo’s Cato Advance: Channel Madness Round 2 Results

Round 2 saw several lead changes in the final hours of voting as channel chiefs went head-to-head in CRN’s 2025 Channel Madness tournament.

Final results for Round 2 of the 2025 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs are in the books following a flurry of activity that led to three lead changes during the final hours of voting.

Here's a look at how the Solutions 16 fared and who's moving on to the quarterfinal round as the Enterprise 8.

One of the most hotly contested matchups of the round pitted tournament rookie Tara Fine of Broadcom against Nutanix’s Christian Goffi, an on-court manifestation of their companies’ bitter off-court rivalry. The Innovation region contest went back and forth throughout the round, but it was Fine who retook the lead in the final quarter and emerged victorious with 55 percent of the vote over Goffi, who ended with 45 percent.

In the Evolution region, Lenovo’s Rob Cato found some breathing room and was able to fend off a strong push by ServiceNow’s Erica Volini. Cato closed out the game with 56 percent of the vote to Volini’s 44 percent.

The Transformation region’s matchup between Veeam Software’s Kevin Rooney and SentinelOne’s Brian Lanigan saw one final lead change after Rooney surged to end up back on top with 62 percent of the vote to Lanigan’s 38 percent.

In the Acceleration region, Kaseya’s Dan Tomaszewski was able to adjust his game plan to outshoot F5’s Lisa Citron. Tomaszewski orchestrated a come-from-behind win with 62 percent of the vote to Citron’s 38 percent.

Here’s a look at the final results:

Transformation

Michael DePalma, OpenText, 57 percent vs. Kate Woolley, IBM, 43 percent

Kevin Rooney, Veeam Software, 62 percent vs. Brian Lanigan, SentinelOne, 38 percent

Acceleration

Dave Guzzi, Intel, 24 percent vs. Lori Cornmesser, 1Password, 76 percent

Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya, 62 percent vs. Lisa Citron, F5, 38 percent

Innovation

Tara Fine, Broadcom, 55 percent vs. Christian Goffi, Nutanix 45 percent

Scott Barlow, Sophos, 71 percent vs. Bob Skelley, Arctic Wolf, 29 percent

Evolution

Tom Evans, Cloudflare, 71 percent vs. Gordon Lord, Schneider Electric, 29 percent

Rob Cato, Lenovo, 56 percent vs. Erica Volini, ServiceNow, 44 percent

That sets up the Enterprise 8 quarterfinal matchups, which will see OpenText’s Michael DePalma square off against Veeam’s Kevin Rooney for the Transformation crown, while 1Password’s Lori Cornmesser faces Kaseya’s Dan Tomaszewski for the Acceleration title.

On the other side of the bracket, Broadcom’s Tara Fine takes on Sophos’ Scott Barlow for the Innovation title, while Cloudflare’s Tom Evans challenges Lenovo’s Rob Cato for the Evolution crown.

Voting in Round 3 opens today, Tuesday, March 25 at 4:00 PM ET and remains open until Thursday, March 27 at noon ET.

Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!