Amancio Ortega Short biography
Amancio Ortega Gaona is a Spanish fashion billionaire and the founder of Inditex, the world's largest clothing retailer by sales. He was born on March 28, 1936, in Busdongo de Arbas, a small village in the northern Spanish province of León. His father was a railway worker and his mother was a maid. The family was poor and Ortega had to leave school at the age of 14 to help support them.
Ortega began working as a delivery boy for a men's shirt store and then as an assistant in a tailor's shop. This experience gave him a deep understanding of the garment industry, from manufacturing to retail. In 1963, he founded his first company, Confecciones Goa, which made quilted bathrobes. The company was successful and Ortega used the profits to open his first Zara store in A Coruña, Spain, in 1975.
In 1966, Ortega married Rosalia Mera Goyenechea. They had two children together, Marcos and Sandra Ortega Mera. The couple divorced in 1986. Mera died in August 2013 at the age of 69. In 2001 Ortega married Flora Pérez Marcote.
