Both will serve to bolster research in the firm’s disruptive growth and alpha technology strategies and identify companies that are forcefully innovating, the group said.

The appointments coincide with the disruptive team investment manager Amanda Lyons leaving to pursue another opportunity.

Chen, who specialises in the global internet sector, will join in August from Welight Capital, a family office set up by a founding partner of Tencent. She has also spent five years as an analyst at Goldman Sachs focused on China online entertainment equity research. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and law from the University of Peking in Beijing and a master’s degree in international finance and international relations from John Hopkins University. She is based in Hong Kong.

Maru joins the team internally after spending five years in GAM’s compliance division. He is expected to help the team continue automating more of its research and portfolio construction process, the group, and cover software and hardware names for the strategies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in materials science from the University of Oxford and is based in London.

In a second hire, GAM Investments has hired Nicholas Tan as associate director. Tan, who is based in Singapore, will report to Terence Bong, head of Singapore.

In this new role, Tan will be responsible for business development and client relationships in Singapore and the Southeast Asia region. His appointment will increase GAM’s local presence and follows the appointment of Bong and the opening of a Singapore office.

Tan has joined GAM from Capital International, where he spent three years as part of the business development team. Prior to that, he was an intermediary business development associate at Nikko Asset Management Asia, with responsibility for servicing private banks. He began his career in 2012 at a family office, Dawe Holdings.

The Zurich-based group manages assets of SFr 124 billion ($132 billion) and operates across 14 countries.