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.