Taft was the Chief Executive Officer of the ExTerra Foundation from 1986 to 1991, where he oversaw a team that planned and developed the Canada-China Dinosaur Project. The project's scientific partners were the Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The project was conceived and initiated by anthropologist Brian Noble and palaeontologist Philip J. Currie. Noble, who named the Foundation and lead the international team from 1983 to 1989, invited Taft to become a co-founding member of Ex Terra's Board in 1984. The project included a multimillion-dollar series of expeditions that formed "one of the biggest dinosaur hunts in history". It also included books, internationally televised films, and eventually an international touring exhibit.