Gillian Akiko Thomson is a Filipina television host, journalist and retired swimmer.
Background
When she was young, she and her family moved to Manila where her father, who had previous experience with the United States Office of Naval Intelligence, became the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines in the latter years of the Marcos dictatorship.
Education
University of California, Berkeley. Ateneo de Manila University.
Career
She is the youngest of three children born to an American father, Marshall Thomson, and a Japanese mother from Hiroshima, Hiroko Nakamura. Her older siblings are Julia and Joshua. Thomson began swimming at the age of six.
She started to represent the Philippines in several swimming competitions locally and abroad after becoming a naturalized Filipino citizen through an Acting of Congress by the age of 12.
Thomson graduated with a degree in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and then took her masters in Business Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University. After her retirement from competitive swimming, she became a television host and journalist with Productions at ABS-Christian Broadcasting Network. At present, Thomson is the current president of Philippine Olympians Association, replacing former president Art Macapagal.