Choose Your Chief: 2018 CRN Channel Madness Voting Opens Thursday

It starts with 32 of the industry's most influential channel chiefs. It ends with one.

The 2018 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs kicks off Thursday, March 15, 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 fourth 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.

Some of last year's favorites are back for another run, like Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Channels and Programs Gavriella Schuster, who made it into the Semifinal round in 2017. But there are also some new faces in the contest, such as Dell EMC President of Global Channels, OEM and IoT Solutions Joyce Mullen, Juniper Corporate Vice President, Global Partners and Alliances Brian Rosenberg, Veeam Vice President, Americas Channel Sales Kevin Rooney and Cylance Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances Didi Dayton.

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Is it a popularity contest? A vote for the executive who'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 2018 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 Security.

Voting for Round 1 opens Thursday, March 15, at 10 a.m. ET with 16 executive face-offs and will remain open until Wednesday, March 21, at noon ET. You can follow all the action at crn.com/madness and on social media with the hashtag #CRNChannelMadness And there's still time to enter our bracket contest to see if you can predict the winner.

So, ladies and gentlemen, prepare to choose your chief.

Here's a look at the 2018 CRN Channel Madness tournament matchups.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Shannon Sbar, APC By Schneider Electric Vs. Bob Gault, Extreme Networks

Wendy Bahr, Cisco Systems Vs. Curtiz Gangi, Eaton

David Helfer, F5 Networks Vs. Jeff McCullough, NetApp

Andy Martin, Pure Storage Vs. Brian Rosenberg, Juniper Networks

HARDWARE

Donna Grothjan, Aruba, An HPE Company Vs. Mike Coleman, Samsung Electronics

Joyce Mullen, Dell EMC Vs. Darren Cassidy, Xerox

Stephanie Dismore, HP Vs. Sammy Kinlaw, Lexmark

Todd Garrigues, Intel Vs. Nick Tidd, Polycom

CLOUD

Terry Wise, Amazon Web Services Vs. Frank Rauch, VMware

Eric Martorano, Intermedia.net Vs. Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, Salesforce

Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft Vs. Kevin Rooney, Veeam

Bill Swales, Oracle Vs. Brooke Cunningham, Splunk

SECURITY

Didi Clayton, Cylance Vs. Keith Weatherford, Symantec

Jon Bove, Fortinet Vs. Kendra Krause, Sophos

Ken McCray, McAfee Vs. Faraz Siraj, RSA

Ron Myers, Palo Alto Networks Vs. Steve Pataky, SonicWall