Kevin Taft (born September 9, 1955) is an author, consultant, speaker, and former provincial politician in Alberta, Canada. Prior to his election, he worked in various public policy roles (1973-2000) in the Government of Alberta, private and non-profit sectors, in the areas of health, energy, and economic policy. From 1986 to 1991 he was CEO of the ExTerra Foundation, which conducted paleontological expeditions in China's Gobi Desert, Alberta's badlands, and the Canadian Arctic. He is the author of five books as well as several research studies and articles on political and economic issues in Alberta. In the mid-late 1990s Dr. Taft wrote two books critical of the ruling Progressive Conservatives. The Premier of Alberta at the time (Ralph Klein) insulted Taft in the Alberta Legislature, which solidified Taft's desire to run for office to defend his perspective on public policy. He was an Alberta Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2001 to 2012, and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2004 to 2008. Taft is currently an author, speaker, and consultant. He is father to two adult sons and currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his partner Jeanette Boman.
Education
Taft has a B.A. in Political Science and Master's Degree in Community Development from the University of Alberta. He received a Ph.D. (1998) in Business from the University of Warwick in England.
Career
Early career
Taft has worked as a consultant and policy analyst in both the public and private sectors. His professional career began in 1973 at the age of eighteen when Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservative cabinet appointed him a member of the Alberta Health Facilities Review Committee. His position on the committee involved investigating and monitoring Alberta's hospitals and nursing homes, and reporting through the committee to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Taft left the committee in 1982. He also worked as a planning consultant with the Alberta Hospital Association and on the Alberta government's Nursing Home Review Panel task force from 1981 to 1982. In 1983, he became Coordinator of Planning, Research, and Evaluation for the Edmonton Region of Alberta Social Services and Community Health, where he remained until 1986.
Work with the ExTerra Foundation
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.
The joint Canadian-Chinese expeditions went to China's Gobi Desert, Alberta's badlands, and the Canadian arctic. At the time, China was just beginning to open to international visitors, and the Gobi Desert expeditions were the first involving westerners since the 1930s.
The project discovered several new dinosaur species and yielded a large number of scientific papers, including a special edition of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
Taft resigned from ExTerra in 1991 when it encountered financial shortfalls.
Consulting work
From 1991 to 2000, Taft worked as a consultant, researcher, and speaker through his firm Taft Research and Communications. His primary focuses were health care policy, energy, and economic policy.