GOOD CREDIT

QIC head of private debt Australia Phil Miall's nearly 30 years' experience covers every corner of the credit market. He shares why active management is critical in the asset class and what he's learned during periods of tumult.

- Karren Vergara writes.

If there are two things that Phil Miall is passionate about and can fuse together it is family and skiing.

You'll find the family regularly swishing through ski fields and enjoying an activity that has not only become a shared interest but a family tradition.

Earlier this year, Miall and his son went on a ski trip to Canada that he describes as "fantastic for our bond."

"My kids are both now much better than I am; they're 19 and 16 years old and just want to go fast on the trickiest runs. While I prefer to cruise nowadays and avoid busting a knee, I find skiing is a great way to combine two things that I love. We go at least once a year," he says.

Miall is an all-round active person. Cycling and triathlons are additional hobbies that if he doesn't do on a regular basis, he starts to get a twitch.

Being active, in terms of how he approaches investing and managing a portfolio and broadly from an investment point of view, also carries through nicely in the professional field.

"I have somewhat of a rare breadth of experience in credit markets, compared to someone who came from a more traditional route of investment banking and leverage finance and then entered private debt investing," he says.

Miall's DNA is in bottom-up credit research that has stayed with him in his nearly 30-year career.

Miall started in commercial and institutional lending with Sanwa Bank (which is now part of MUFG), Commonwealth Bank, and BNP Paribas, then cut his teeth early in what is still the private debt market, albeit on the bank side.

He then moved to Fitch Ratings where he became a director of corporate ratings, and gained valuable experience understanding rating agency methodologies, conducting detailed credit due diligence and assigning credit ratings.