Marta Ortega Pérez (born 10 January 1984) is a Spanish businesswoman who is the daughter of

Amancio Ortega Amancio Ortega Gaona, OMC (; born 28 March 1936) is a Spanish billionaire businessman. He is the founder and former chairman of Inditex fashion group, best known for its chains of Zara and Bershka clothing and accessories shops. He is cons ...

and was appointed chair of

Inditex Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A. (Inditex; , ; ) is a Spanish multinational clothing company headquartered in Arteixo, Galicia, Spain. The largest fast fashion group in the world, it operates over 7,200 stores in 93 markets worldwide. The compa ...

as of December 2021. Ortega replaced

Pablo Isla Pablo Isla Álvarez de Tejera (born 22 January 1964) is a Spanish businessman and a civil service lawyer who was chairman and CEO of Inditex, a Spanish corporation and the world's largest fashion group, from 2005 to 2022. Early life and educatio ...

, who was chair and CEO of Inditex since 2011, in April 2022.

Career

Ortega was born on 10 January 1984 in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Spain. She studied at

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

and continued her baccalaureate education in Switzerland. She studied business at the European Business School in London and graduated in 2007, with a specialty in international entrepreneurship. The same year, she began to work at Inditex, at the London Zara store in Chelsea, then other locations and departments in the business. She currently works at the Inditex headquarters in

Arteixo Arteixo (; ()) is a municipality in the province of A Coruña, part of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. Its area is 93.76 km2 and its population is 31,005 (2013). Its population density is 317.43 people/km2. It is ...

, Spain, for the women's product and design department, collaborating with Beatriz Padín. In Arteixo, Ortega works with her father, Inditex founder

, introducing new ways to communicate with the public. Since 2015, she has been on the board of directors of the Amancio Ortega Foundation. The foundation's scholarship program was modified due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

per an agreement with the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). In November 2021 it was announced that in 1 April she would be named chairperson of Inditex, succeeding

. Her appointment caused the company's share price to fall sharply. In her role, she will be expected to address the company's reputation of alleged forced labor and environmental impact. She was ranked 32nd on Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women in 2023.

Personal life

Ortega has two children, a son and a daughter. She married Sergio Álvarez Moya in 2012, with whom she had her son, but separated three years later. In 2018 she was married to Carlos Torretta, a public relations employee at Inditex, with whom she has a daughter born in 2020. For her wedding to Torretta, she wore a Valentino gown.

References

21st-century Spanish businesswomen 21st-century Spanish businesspeople Living people 1984 births Alumni of European Business School London {{Spain-business-bio-stub