Amancio Ortega

Amancio Ortega Gaona (born 1936) is a Spanish billionaire businessman, the founder and former chairman of the Inditex fashion group, best known for its chains of Zara and Bershka clothing and accessories shops, and is considered a pioneer in fast fashion. The youngest of four children, he was born in Busdongo de Arbas, Leon, and left school at 14 to work in A Coruna, where he found a job as a shop hand for a local shirtmaker and learned to make clothes by hand. In 1963 he founded Confecciones Goa to sell quilted bathrobes, and in 1975 he opened his first Zara store with his wife Rosalia Mera. The Inditex group went public in 2001, and in 2011 he announced his retirement, asking Inditex vice-president and CEO Pablo Isla to take his place as head. He also became a major philanthropist, donating 300 million euros to fight cancer across Spain.