The Spanish ready-to-wear giant Inditex, which notably owns the Zara brand, appointed Marta Ortega on April 1, 2022 as head of the group founded by her father. A new attribution which propels the 38-year-old Spaniard among the most powerful women in the world.
Marta Ortega, new strong head of the Inditex group and Zara
The journey of Marta Ortega
Born in 1984 in Vigo, Spain, Marta Ortega is the third child of Amancio Ortega, the founder and historic CEO of the Inditex group (Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka). She spent her youth traveling across Europe. She will be an au pair in Great Britain, before obtaining her baccalaureate in Switzerland and returning to England to study at the European Business School London.
Once her university studies were completed, she returned to her native region to join the family business in 2007. She stayed there for 15 years, during which she promoted the brand in different countries, particularly in London, where she maintained ties there. and worked as a saleswoman in her early days, before gaining importance in the group’s organizational chart.
Marta was elevated to the rank of President and CEO of Inditex on April 1, 2022. Thus, after a prolonged interim period by Pablo Isla for eleven years, the presidency of the group returns to the family fold. “ I have been living this business since I was a child and have learned from all the great professionals I have worked with over the last 15 years“, specifies Marta Ortega during her induction at the head of this iconic textile group.
Marta Ortega’s missions at the head of the company
The promotion of Marta Ortega comes at a decisive moment for the Galician company. Indeed, if the group is doing very well from a financial point of view, since it is currently valued at 62 billion euros, with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, doubt is starting to set in on the side of La Corunna.
The Spanish textile sales giant announced in March 2022 that it would suspend its activities in Russia, causing the closure of 502 stores, one of its main global markets after Spain.
At the same time, Marta Ortega will have to accelerate the company’s ecological transition, in order to reduce its environmental impact, which is currently very high and heavily criticized. If the former CEO Pablo Isla had already undertaken the beginning of this transition, the young president will have to continue the efforts, in order to maintain the empire created by her father at the top of textile marketing in the world. Indeed, the Inditex group, with its brands Zara and Pull&Bear, is often called a fast fashion giant.
What is the Inditex company, parent company of Zara and Pull&Bear, taken over by Marta Ortega?
Inditex is a Spanish group mainly known for the development of the ready-to-wear brand Zara. In addition to this, the company also owns the following brands:
- Bershka, clothing for men and women
- Kiddy’s class, textiles for newborns
- Lefties, brand specializing in the marketing of low-end clothing
- Massimo Dutti, chic brand
- Oysho, underwear and sportswear
- Pull and Beara new generation oriented textile brand
- Stradivarius, specialized in women’s clothing
- Templeshoe marketing
- Uterqüe for fashion accessories
Founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega, father of Marta Ortega, the Zara brand has nearly 2,000 stores around the world. In total, the Spanish group has more than 6,500 stores, spread across 96 countries. The group, whose head office is located in Galicia, in western Spain, works with more than 300 stylists to develop products for all the brands owned by the group and can count on the work of its 174,000 employees . The waltz of dizzying figures does not stop there since Inditex achieved a turnover of 27.7 billion euros in 2022, generating a profit of 3.24 billion euros. Since 2001, the company has been listed on the stock exchange.
Although Father Ortega retired in 2011, he still owns 59.3% of the group and remains an emblematic figure of the group. It also continues to influence decisions. As proof, his daughter, Marta, was elevated to the rank of president and CEO on April 1, 2022.
The most powerful women in the world
Every year, the American economic magazine Forbesspecialized in the development of multiple rankings linked to the wealth and power of public figures in particular, publishes its Top 100 most powerful women in the world. To establish this ranking, two criteria are mainly taken into account: the political and economic impacts of these women in the world. Among them, we find:
- Mackenzie Scott : the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. The couple divorced in 2019, she received 25% of her husband’s stake in Amazon, a nice jackpot of $36 billion.
- Kamala Harris : Vice President of the United States.
- Christine Lagarde : president of the European Central Bank (ECB), former president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019, Minister of the Economy in France between 2007 and 2011. She remains the first woman to have been Minister of the Economy in a G country. She is also the first woman to have served as Managing Director of the IMF and President of the ECB.
- Mary Barra : CEO of General Motorsgiant of the American automobile industry.
- Ursula von der Leyen : President of the European Commission.
- Tsai Ing-wen : President of Taiwan.
There are now hundreds of them occupying positions of great responsibility and this is now the case of Marta Ortega, who will perhaps appear among this ranking in the near future.
