Bin Salama, the former Kuwait minister of communication, took the helm Sunday, barely two weeks after Al Barrak's abrupt resignation.
Saad Al Barrak resigned under unexplained circumstances after running the company for seven years, raising fears that Zain's rapid growth in Africa will likely slow down.
Al Barrak wanted to make Zain one of the top 10 mobile operators by 2011. The new CEO has not said how he intends to grow the company that already has a presence in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East and with more than 70 million customers.
"The board of directors states their confidence in the professional capabilities of Bin Salama in continuing the company's future direction and path in maximizing shareholder value," said part of a statement from Zain Zambia last week.
Zain, based in Kuwait, is the largest mobile operator in the Middle East and the second largest in Africa after Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) of South Africa. But the company's growth strategy has been under scrutiny since the economic meltdown last year that forced it to lay off thousands of workers in Africa.
Zain is still undergoing some difficult times as management and the board of directors have agreed on whether to sell the company to new investors. The company's major shareholder is pushing to sell a controlling stake in the operator to foreign investors, which Al Barrak opposed, fearing it would negatively affect the company's growth strategy.
Last year, the company's board of directors approved the sale of the company's Africa operations to Vivendi. After negotiations, Vivendi reversed its bid to buy the operations claiming it was unprofitable. Since 2009, discussions have been ongoing between the board of directors and India's Vavasi Group, as well as with regional Indian telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephony Nigam, to buy the company.
Kuwait's Kharafi Group, which is leading a consortium to sell 46 percent stake in the operator, said last month that it will postpone its decision due to the region's current economic and financial circumstances. Salama, who has a degree in electronic engineering, served as a general manager of Zain in 1997.
African telecom analysts claim that Salama is expected to endorse the idea of selling the company to new investors. But the company, they claim, will experience a slowdown in expansion plans as the new owners will want to run the operations independently, using their own strategy.