RIYADH: A high-profile IT expert and chief executive officer of telecom giant Zain Saudi Arabia resigned yesterday.

“Marwan Al-Ahmadi, under whose leadership Zain obtained the operating license and rolled out its network to cover 95 percent of the Saudi population within a short time span, has stepped down,” confirmed Zain’s spokesman. A new CEO has already been named, but the reasons for Al-Ahmadi’s sudden resignation was not immediately clear.

A Zain press statement released yesterday said that the company has appointed Saad H. Al-Barrak as new CEO. The statement said that Al-Ahmadi, whose resignation will be effective from April 1, would continue to hold his position as a member of the Zain’s board of directors. Al-Barrak, an old hand at this telecom company, has been working as deputy chairman of the Zain Group.

Al-Barrak is an engineer and businessman. Since his appointment in 2002, under his tutelage, Zain’s customer base has increased from 600,000 to over 63.54 million active customers across the Middle East. In this period, Zain’s market capitalization on the Kuwait Stock Exchange increased from less than $2.5 billion to now $10 billion. Al-Barrak holds a Ph.D in information systems from the University of London besides being an alumnus of Harvard University. He also served as the vice-chairman of the office of Emiri Diwan in Kuwait.

Referring to the reasons of Al-Ahmadi’s resignation, the statement said that this decision was taken as per a “pre-agreed arrangement.”

Zain also announced its financial statements for the period ending December 2008 few weeks ago. The statement disclosed that the company succeeded to over perform the objectives of its estimated business plan with more than 27 percent. The revenue passed over half a billion Saudi riyals and the number of active customers exceeded two million within only four months from the launch of its services late in August 2008.