I had a hunch earlier that I might be able to find something about W. Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain in some of the business reference resources in the library, but if you look at my earlier diary, I also noted that the book I was looking for, D&B Reference Book of Corporate Managements, was not available at my university library.
Not to be deterred, however, I decided to dive into the stacks anyway and see what I might find. I shot down a lot of blind alleys (Who's Who in American Politics, for example), but, as is almost always the case, struck gold on the very last call number I wrote down: HC 102 D822 in the Reference Section.
The shelf was bare and I was staring at it, frustrated and ready to go home. Then I looked to my left: LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations. Huh? So I flipped it open, and it had an entry on Bain Capital, and that entry had the corporate personnel listed!
Well, it only went back to 2002, but I decided to write its call number down (HG4057.A217) anyway and see if it had a change of title. It did.
I hit paydirt: Directory of Corporate Affiliations (Call Number HG4057.A2 D5).
So, naturally, I pulled 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 off the shelves.
1998:
"W. Mitt Romney (Mng. Dir.)"
(You get a little ankle in that first shot! Woo hoo!)
1999:
"W. Mitt Romney (Mng. Dir.)"
2000:
"W. Mitt Romney (Mng. Dir.)"
2001:
"W. Mitt Romney (Mng. Dir.)"
It was like this for the 2002 and 2003 editions, also. His name didn't disappear from the entry on Bain Capital in the Lexis-Nexis Corporate Affiliations directory until the 2004 edition.
I realize this doesn't prove anything, but it does show that if W. Mitt Romney "left Bain Capital in February 1999", he didn't tell the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, the National Register Publishing Company, or Lexis-Nexis until 2004.