We applaud Nashville Post for recognizing the importance of the growth of technology ventures as Nashville builds its reputation as one of the nation’s top cities for tech entrepreneurs. Because of this growing emphasis on technology entrepreneurs, the inclusion of Consensus Point in this elite group is especially rewarding and exciting for our team!

As always, Nashville Post said it best when they summed up our offering, “The simple goal of Consensus Point is to reduce the risk of uncertainty—a much needed service in today’s world of ever—present market flux.”

You have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing, but here’s the rest of our excerpt:

Since CEO Linda Rebrovick took over the leadership of Nashville-based Consensus Point in 2009, big-name clients like General Electric, Best Buy and others have signed on for the company’s enterprise prediction markets products.

The idea behind the Consensus Point brand is to help companies reduce the risk of uncertainty and improve revenue by more accurately forecasting projects, products and services. Prediction markets provide insight to a company’s management by synthesizing the previously untapped knowledge derived from employees, customers and business partners—knowledge then used to aid the prediction analysis.

Linda’s experience serving as a Director on several public boards, including HealthStream and Pinnacle Financial Partners, KPMG LLP, uniquely qualifies her to speak on this important topic. In the interview, Linda speaks briefly but passionately about her work at Consensus Point (which we love!) and discusses valuable ideas to identify qualified board candidates with diversity of thought and experience.

The diversity of board members is important—not just diversity of background and expertise—but also diversity of thought and experience that come from having a board that brings diversity of gender and race. There are many qualified candidates so the nominating committee must find and recommend the outstanding directors who meet the skills needs, bring diversity of thought, and fit within the board and company culture. For example, Linda specifically recommends the following organizations to provide qualified women candidates: Inter Organization Network (ION), Womens Busines Leaders in US Healthcare (WBL), and Women’s Corporate Directors (WCD).

At Consensus Point, we are very proud of Linda’s recent honors recognizing her efforts in our business, community and boards. Linda has been named to the Academy for Women of Achievement, YWCA; Most Powerful Women, the Nashville Post; and Power Leaders in Technology, Nashville Business Journal. And that’s just in 2011! Her track record of leadership, sound management, and good governance have doubtless added value to every board on which she’s served. We are fortunate to work with her every day to spread the word about prediction markets and are proud that her talents can now be shared with a larger audience.

Click here to watch Linda on “This Week in the Boardroom.”

TK focused on interesting and timely questions to bring valuable board insight to the CMO audience and leveraged John and Linda’s many years of Board experience in Board Governance:

John McGoldrick:
John is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Zimmer Holdings, Inc. a healthcare company that specializes in medical appliances & equipment. He is also among the early developers of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative that has done a ton of good in Africa, and John still serves as a special advisor to that organization. Previously, he served as EVP and general counsel for the Bristol Myers Squibb Co.

Linda Rebrovick:
Linda serves on the Board and is the Chair of the Nominating and Governance committee of Healthstream, Inc., the leading provider of learning and research solutions for the healthcare industry. Linda previously held the position of Chief Marketing Officer, BearingPoint, Inc. and currently is the CEO for Consensus Point, Inc.

Panel questions on Board Governance included:

• How has the process of serving on a board changed over the last 5 years since Sarbanes Oxley has been in place, board roles are redefined, and the new era of shareholder activists and transparency in the boardroom.
• How are boards more involved today in major strategic, technological, and financial decisions?
• One of the developments over the last 5 years has also been the development of committees, where today a lot of the board work is done, and the need for specific skills and diversity of thought on boards. How do you, as Board Chair and Chair, Governance Committee, go about building the right board with the right skill sets?

Stay tuned for answers and more, coming in an exciting forum next week!

Earlier this year, Nashville-based health care learning and research company HealthStream announced that Jim Daniell, one of its board members and one of the company’s earliest clients, would not stand for re-election to the board. At press time, HealthStream’s search to replace him was ongoing.

HealthStream has a female board director in Linda Rebrovick, a longtime IBM executive, KPMG partner and currently CEO of Consensus Point, an innovator in enterprise prediction market software serving the red-hot forecasting sector. Rebrovick’s connection to CABLE and other organizations positioned her well to help HealthStream’s board identify qualified female candidates—and she was only too happy to do so. With the new SEC regulations in place requiring that boards disclose efforts to nominate a diverse pool for open board seats, it was no doubt welcome information to the otherwise all male HealthStream board.

HealthStream CEO Bobby Frist expresses a strong desire to increase diversity on his board, in part by citing statistics that show a high correlation between board diversity and the performance of a company.

“We subscribe to that notion as a full board and as individual board members,” Frist says. “The candidate pool we’ve recently created exhibits a diversity of experience and background and thought.”

Frist says there have been “huge advances” in recent times in bringing qualified diverse candidates to the light, in no small part because of organizations like CABLE, ION and others that have ramped up efforts to organize resources in such a way that board searches can achieve greater diversity.

In part due to HealthStream’s success in its current search, Frist scoffs at the notion that there are not enough qualified diverse candidates to sit on boards.

“For me, that perspective also has a lot to do with what companies mean by being quali- fied, because you can be a student of business in many ways. You don’t have to have been involved in a big company. That, to me, doesn’t make you the best-qualified candidate. So there may be some problem in the way people are defining their qualifications that would open up the definition to more candidates if they thought of it slightly differently.”

While Frist agrees that the gears have moved “very slowly” in regard to corporate board diversification, he believes the overlay of increased SEC disclosure requirements, greater awareness and more education will result in a more rapid pace of change in the next three to five years than in the last few.

“With any major push like this, education comes first,” Frist says. “Change will follow.” That’s no guarantee that HealthStream will choose a diverse candidate in its current search. Nor should there be. “The key is to have a good and diverse candidate pool, and I’m confident we have achieved that,” Frist says. “But the number one priority is selecting the most qualified candidate from the broadest qualified pool. Think of it in those two ways, and I’m confident we’ll get the right person.”

There’s also a brief interview with Linda:

What can women do to improve the situation?

Women can make it known that they are interested. Much of it is just putting yourself in the candidate pool. Second, be sure that you have a development plan. Sit on a nonprofit board. A private company board. Work your way up. Attend a corporate board member event. Get a mentor, someone on a corporate board, to guide you through the type of development you need to become more prepared. Try to get in a position in your company where you are managing a P&L, because financial expertise is really important.

What can companies do?

Companies need to decide that diversity is a qualification that is a priority in their searches and then they need to tap into CABLE or ION [or other outlets] and identify candidates. Clearly, they’ll be very impressed if they take the initiative, make it a commitment and go find these resources.

Thanks to Nashville Post for covering this issue, and thanks to Linda for being a great leader!