Neil Armstrong takes Zain's annual ACE management meeting to the moon

The meeting was held under the auspices of and attended by the Jordanian Prime Minister, Eng. Nader Dahabi; the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Bassem Rousan and the CEO of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Dr Ahmed Hiasat.

"The honour and purpose of having such a world figure was to motivate Zain leaders from all our operations to be brave and take risks in their daily personal and business dealings,"

declared Dr Al Barrak, whose idea it was to invite the former astronaut.

"This is what got Zain to where it is today, and this is what will get Zain into the top-ten global telecommunications in the world by 2011."

Like Armstrong and his crew, Zain has undertaken many daring and pioneering missions, from its first $423m acquisition of Fastlink, Jordan in 2003, to its record-breaking $3.4bn acquisition of its African operations Celtel in 2005 and most recently, its $6.1bn licence acquisition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to name a few. Zain also operates in some of the most challenging markets on Earth such as Iraq and many sub-Saharan African countries. Zain has invested over $12bn on the African continent alone in just three years, and a similar amount in the Middle East since 2003. In addition, the company undertook an exciting and brave rebranding of all its operations over the last 12 months to the new Zain brand.

Landing on the Dead Sea, Earth's lowest altitude, Mr Armstrong, introduced himself to Zain executives and managers from across 22 countries by saying, "stepping foot on such a low altitude is a characteristic I am not well known for" adding that "Taking risks, unconventional solutions, good ideas, testing and team work, are all the necessary ingredients for a company to succeed in today's world. As managers you bear the responsibility of Zain's success, nothing takes the place of persistence and there is little satisfaction in reaching easy goals, so aim high."

ACE stands for 'Accelerate, Consolidate, Expand', the strategy in 2003 that will thrust Zain to its 2011 target, of being a top-ten global telecommunications company. The late US President John F. Kennedy, famously said in 1962, "We choose to go to the Moon." Seven years later in 1969, Neil Armstrong realised that dream. Zain can do the same.