Datuk Zainal was appointed to the Board of Directors of FGB on 22 October 2001 and subsequently as Senior Independent Non-Executive Director on 23 May 2003. He is also a Member of the Audit and Risk Committee, and the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of FGB.

Datuk Zainal holds a Bachelor of Arts (History), with Honours from University of Malaya. He was with the Malaysian Diplomatic and Administrative Service in 1967 and retired in 1999 as Ambassador to Indonesia. He had served in various capacities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as in various Malaysian Embassies abroad, namely in Washington D.C., Jakarta, New Delhi, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He was also the Malaysia's Ambassador to Kuwait (concurrently accredited as Malaysia's Ambassador to Bahrain, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Oman), Thailand and The Republic of Indonesia. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he had also served as ASEAN Director General for Malaysia and as the Chief of Protocol. He does not hold directorship in any other public companies.

Datuk Zainal does not have any family relationship with any Director and/or major shareholder of FGB. He does not have any conflict of interest with FGB. He has had no convictions for any offences within the past 10 years other than traffic offences, if any.