CRN Channel Madness: Famularo Departure, Last-Minute Lead Changes Mark Round 1's Final Hours

Round 1 of the 2016 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is quickly coming to a close. With just over an hour of voting time left, let's see where the match-ups stand.

The Cloud region was rocked Tuesday when CRN broke the news that Verizon's Adam Famularo is leaving the company for an as-of-yet unspecified role as CEO of a software company. Famularo's job change might be good news for him but bad news for his Channel Madness campaign. Carbonite's Jessica Couto is now ahead of him 56 percent to 44 percent.

Datto's Rob Rae is ahead of Amazon's Terry Wise 65 percent to 35 percent. VMware's Frank Rauch is holding steady against NetSuite's Craig West 68 percent to 32 percent, and AT&T's Brooks McCorcle is handily in charge of her matchup with StorageCraft's Mike Kunz 79 percent to 21 percent.

In the Infrastructure region, Extreme's Bob Gault has extended his lead over Dell's Cheryl Cook and is now up 59 percent to 41 percent.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Scott Dunsire and SimpliVity's George Hope have been back-and-forth this whole round, but Dunsire currently has the edge with a 55 percent to 45 percent lead.

Chris Morgan of Nutanix has been saving his best for the final minutes. He's been trailing Cisco's Wendy Bahr since voting opened Thursday but is now clinging to a slim lead, 51 percent to Bahr's 49 percent.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Kerry Bailey is up comfortably over opponent Gregg Ambulos of EMC 55 percent to 45 percent.

In the Hardware region, Lenovo's Sammy Kinlaw is orchestrating a comeback, surging ahead 65 percent to 35 percent over HP's Stephanie Dismore.

Dell's Frank Vitagliano and HP's Jos Brenkel continue to duke it out. The two were tied yesterday but Vitagliano is now holding a 51 percent to 49 percent edge.

Eaton's Curtiz Gangi continues to try to make up ground against Sandra Glaser Cheek of Ruckus, but the buzzer might come too soon for him. Cheek is ahead 58 percent to 42 percent.

And Intel's Maurits Tichelman leads Rob McKernan of APC by Schneider Electric 61 percent to 39 percent.

In the Software region, SAP's Rodolpho Cardenuto continues to extend his lead over IBM's Marc Dupaquier 57 percent to 43 percent.

Phil Sorgen of Microsoft leads Palo Alto Networks' Ron Myers 58 percent to 42 percent. Red Hat's Mark Enzweiler seems unstoppable in his matchup with Fortinet's Joe Sykora, leading 70 percent to 30 percent.

And 2015 CRN Channel Madness Champion Mike Valentine looks good for a Round 2 berth, leading Oracle's Bill Swales 79 percent to 21 percent.

Voting in Round 1 closes at noon ET. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!