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It’s a 2-part quiz this month. Which of the following directors serve on multiple companies boards – and how would you know?

1. Lee Iacocca
2. Sam Nunn
3. Kenneth Duberstein
4. David Z. Smith

Check your answer!

The answers are 2 and 3. Sam Nunn, the former U.S. Senator of Georgia (1972-1996) is the current CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Kenneth M. Duberstein, former Director of Conoco and President Regan’s White House Chief of Staff, is the Chair and CEO of the Duberstein Group and serves on the boards of The Boeing Company, Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, and The Travelers Companies, Inc.

How do you find the answer?

After public outcry over the management, or mismanagement, of companies that have cost taxpayers while enriching its executives and directors, the SEC expanded its disclosure requirements to answer investor concerns such as who is in charge, what qualifies a board member, how directors are overseeing risks, what other boards do they serve, and how they are being paid?

Unfortunately, it will be a full year before all that information is available in next year’s annual reports. For now, it requires a little digging:

Start by logging into your I-Metrix or EDGAR Pro (or sign on for a free trial).

1. Click the Search Tab and click the Annual Reports Section (to help minimize unrelated results).

2. Enter the last name of the person you are researching in the Section Text Search box and click Search. In this case, we researched Sam Nunn.

3. In the Search results we see four annual reports that mention Nunn in their text.

4. To verify that he is listed as a director, rather than appearing in the document some other reason, click the company’s 10K link. You will go directly to the section in the annual report where Nunn’s name appears.

Will the SEC’s Expanded Proxy Disclosure Requirements really give investors more information for evaluating the leadership of a company and for valuing its stocks?  We’ll run this quiz again next year, once 2010 annual reports are filed, to see.