Chris Tayloris executive director of the West Coast Infrastructure Exchange (WCX), a newly launched public-private entity whose mission is to advance innovative finance and delivery mechanisms for public infrastructure to foster job creation and economic competitiveness in California, Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia. Taylor was previously the co-founder and chief development officer of Portland, Ore.–based Element Power, a wind and solar power company. Institutional Investing in Infrastructure senior editor Drew Campbell spoke with Taylor about the exchange.

In today’s volatile markets, investors are learning that risk is more risky than they might have wanted to admit, and yet it can be treated as just another box to check in the investment process. This could be because the potential risks are well known and the analysis is straightforward and can be clearly specified in an investment decision. But after the boxes are checked come the realities of global economies and all the uncertainties and unexpected consequences that come with them. 

Investment allocations from institutional investors to the infrastructure asset class have risen dramatically in recent years, as bellwether American investors such as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, California State Teachers’ Retirement System and Teachers Retirement System of Texas, among others, have joined their peers in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia who have been investing in the asset class for several decades now.