[1] David Kelley is the founder of TAS, and Jennifer Grossman is its current CEO.

[3][4] In response, Kelley and former ARI advisor George Walsh co-founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies in 1990; it was later renamed The Atlas Society.

[9][10] The organization's activities have included creating written and recorded material about Objectivism, support for student groups, and media appearances.

That same year, the Center founded "The Atlas Society" as an interest group targeted at people who read Rand's novels but were not familiar with other Objectivist literature.

On June 5, 2006, the organization announced its decision "to use The Atlas Society as our official name, which will help us promote our ideas to Rand readers as well as to the general public, while reserving The Objectivist Center name for our more academic and scholarly activities.