Choose Your Chief: 2016 CRN Channel Madness Voting Opens Thursday
It starts with 32 of the industry's most influential channel chiefs. It ends with one.
Thurs. March 17 kicks off the 2016 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, pitting some of the channel's best-known executives against each other in head-to-head battles where CRN readers vote to determine the victors.
The winners of our second annual tournament will make their way, round by round, through the bracket, moving closer and closer to the championship match, where bragging rights are at stake. The losers? Better luck next year.
Our 2015 champion, Mike Valentine of Sophos, is back to defend his title, as is finalist Adam Famularo of Verizon Enterprise Services and a number of other favorites who performed admirably in last year's tournament. We also have a number of channel veterans who are new the Channel Madness tournament, such as Cisco's Wendy Bahr, Eaton's Curtiz Gangi and Fortinet's Joe Sykora.
Is it a popularity contest? A beauty contest? A vote for the executive that's advocated on your behalf or a vote against one who didn't step up when you needed help? It's up to you. The power of the vote is entirely in your hands.
One thing's for sure: It will all be a lot of fun.
Culled from CRN's 2016 Most Influential Channel Chiefs list, CRN editors selected the 32 participants, representing a variety of vendors across the technology industry, from startups to stalwarts. Each represents one of four technology "regions:" Cloud, Hardware, Infrastructure and Software. Each vendor was limited to no more than two executives.
Voting for Round 1 opens on Thurs., March 17 at 10 a.m. ET with 16 executive face-offs and will remain open until Wed., March 23 at noon ET. You can follow all the action at crn.com/madness and on social media with the hashtag #CRNChannelMadness
Here's a look at the executives we've selected for the 2016 CRN Channel Madness tournament and the opening round match-ups.
So, ladies and gentlemen, prepare to choose your chief.
Infrastructure
Vs.
Scott Dunsire, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Kerry Bailey, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hardware
Rob McKernan, APC by Schneider Electric
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Cloud
Adam Famularo, Verizon Enterprise Solutions
(2015 Channel Madness Finalist)
Vs.
Terry Wise, Amazon Web Services
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Software
(2015 Channel Madness Champion)
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.