Meet the team

Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins founded ADS Ventures, Inc. in 1993 after a career in public service that spanned more than 20 years. In 1970, Chet became the youngest person ever elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Two years later, Chet won a seat in the Massachusetts State Senate where he served for more than 10 years. During his tenure in the Senate, Chet served as Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee where he led reforms to modernize the state's budgeting process. Chet was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984 representing the 5th District of Massachusetts and served as Member of the House Appropriations, Foreign Affairs, Ethics and Budget Committees until his retirement from elective office in 1994.

Since leaving Congress, Chet has led a number of initiatives to utilize private capital to achieve public purposes and has organized successful public funding initiatives for organizations in the education, healthcare, high tech and real estate development industries. He also has served as an election observer and legislative trainer for newly elected governments in Cambodia, Yemen, Albania, Russia, Republic of Georgia and Peru.

A longtime director and chairman of the board of New England Health Enterprises, Chet recently worked with management to sell the company to Alliance HealthCare Services. Chet was a founding board member and chairman of the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) in San Francisco. CJA has led numerous initiatives to bring human rights abusers to justice. Chet has served on the boards of Amnesty International, Oxfam America, Emerson Hospital, Cambridge College, Plimoth Plantation, Refugees International, GrainPro, Inc., US Trust Company, and Walden Bank Corp.