Saad Al Barrak, Zain MD, resigns
The Managing Director and Vice-Chairman of Zain, Mr. Saad Al Barrak, has resigned, according to a statement by the firm. The statement said that the company's chairman would convene a board meeting to discuss next steps. Zain, one of the leading Middle East and African regional operator, has had its strategy scrutinised in recent times, especially with the recent global economic meltdown. According to telecoms.com, Al Barrak has helped build Zain into a firm with sizeable regional footprint as part of an oft-stated plan to become a top-tier international player in the telecommuncations industry. Al Barrak took over the leadership of the firm in 2002 with just about 600,000 subscribers on its domestic network in Kuwait. Today, the firm has operations in 22 markets across Africa and the Middle East, counted 52.8million subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2009, according to information from Informa and Telecoms Media's World Cellular Investors Service