In his latest column about the lack of women on the board of Twitter – as well as at tech companies in general – outspoken columnist and academic Vivek Wadhwa lists Brooks Bell of Raleigh as one of 16 women he says are qualified to be board members. “I have been very impressed with her competence, tenacity and determination,” Wadhwa told WRALTechWire.

Reached at a conference in France where Wadhwa is speaking about the role of women in business, the former Triangle entrepreneur said he selected Bell along with several well-known senior women executives (including the head of Pepsico) for several reasons.

“I have known Brooks for a few years,” Wadhwa wrote when asked why he selected Bell. (Her company also operates under the name Brooks Bell. “I have been very impressed with her competence, tenacity, and determination.

“Plus the incubator and mentoring she is doing is really good for the community – she is leading by example and helping others.”

Bell, along with her husband Jesse Lipson, who founded and sold Sharefile to Citrix, and partners Christopher Gergen and Jason Widen, founded the shared office space site known as HUB Raleigh last October. The name was changed later to HQ Raleigh, and the business is expanding. Wadhwa toured the facility and met with entrepreneurs during a recent visit to Raleigh.

An advocate as well for minority entrepreneurs and immigration reform, Wadhaw made sure to take a shot at RTP’s tech culture as well.

“We need more women like her standing up and challenging the RTP boys club,” Wadhwa added.

“I have been highlighting the problems in Silicon Valley, but RTP is worse – believe it or not.

“It must change and that is why I was eager to highlight one of the many impressive women in the area who doesn’t get the recognition she deserves back home.”

Entrepreneur, Mentor

Here’s what Wadhaw wrote about Bell in The Washington Post column published Wednesday:

“Up and coming star.

“Originally from Alaska, Bell attended Duke, where she studied psychology.

“Upon graduation, she founded a company to pioneer a new field of A/B testing — which does randomized testing with two variables and combines analytics, psychology, and marketing to understand user behavior on Web sites. [Wikipedia’s definition of A/B testing: “A/B testing is a methodology in advertising of using randomized experiments with two variants, A and B, which are the control and treatment in the controlled experiment. Such experiments are commonly used in web development and marketing, as well as in more traditional forms of advertising.”]

“She says she suffered from a devastating stroke six months later yet recovered to grow a company that has generated close to $100 million in incremental revenue for large companies in less than three years.

“In 2012, Brooks co-founded HQ Raleigh, a 14,000-square-foot co-working space, incubator, and community, for high-growth, high-impact start-ups. And in 2013, she co-founded the ThinkHouse, a comprehensive living program for young start-up founders.”

The company Brooks Bell is based on Bell’s research. On its website, Brooks Bell says it is the “premier firm focused exclusively on enterprise-level A/B split testing, targeting and optimization services.”

The entire essay can be accessed online.

In an interview with The Triangle Business Journal, Bell said she was very flattered by Wadhwa’s selection. The story can be read online.

Editor’s note: Wadhwa is a freqeunt contributor to WRALTechWire, is an academic at Duke and several other universities, and is currently writing a book about women in business. For more, check out his web site.