martha ortega She turns 39 on January 10 and in advance she has received a gift that surely fills her with enthusiasm: the best results of the listed company after nine months with her in the presidency. Since April she has commanded Inditex and nothing has gone wrong for her, either personally or professionally.
It has been more than a year since the board of directors of the textile giant created by his father accepted the departure of Paul Island. But Marta Ortega has been working at Inditex since she was 23 years old. She started at the bottom right after graduating, experiencing the store during her stay in London, where she worked as a sales clerk in Zara King’s Road and where few knew who that Spanish girl was. “In the first week, I thought she wouldn’t survive,” she admitted years later. She then went through Bershka in Barcelona before disembarking in Arteixo, the company’s headquarters in A Coruña. There she worked with one of her father’s most trusted people, Beatriz Padín, director of Zara Woman. As a living ambassador for her brand, the clothes she wears sell out quickly in stores.
This year, for the first time, she has had to address her employees and on the eve of Christmas Eve, and as the Economist has already announced, the president of Inditex took stock of her first year leading the group. “A year that has been very special for me has come to an end, of which I will always keep great memories. These almost eight months in the presidency of the company have been intense, exciting and a lot of learning,” he explained in the letter sent to the entire staff .
Ortega was grateful to have felt “very supported by everyone” at this time, being aware of the added difficulty due to the “complex circumstances like the ones we have experienced,” his letter said. “Since April I am even more proud, if possible, of the company my father founded, in which I have grown up and in which I live so intensely professionally,” she explained to the Inditex family. After admitting that it has not been an easy year, with his stores in Ukraine closed, and referring to his “colleagues” in the invaded country, and the “so painful situation” that you are going through, he alluded to the “so difficult decision” that divest from their stores in Russia.
The group sold its business in Putin’s country in October, which represented 8.5% of its profit, to the Emirati group Daher, after eight months with its stores closed. “All these difficulties require an even greater effort on the part of each one of you,” requested Marta Ortega.
All in all, Inditex closes the first year of Marta Ortega with historic results despite the war and inflation. Its sales will exceed 31,500 million, about 3,000 million more than its previous record, according to forecasts, and its profit will be close to 4,000 million. “We can and must improve, and I hope to contribute to it,” wrote the president of the listed company.
Personally, the daughter of Amancio Ortega, trustee of the founder’s total trust, lives a sweet moment. Her marriage to Carlos Torretta, father of his daughter Matilda, is an example of stability, and with her first husband, the Asturian horseman Sergio Alvarez Moya, father of little Amancio, the relationship is very good. Marta Ortega married Carlos Torretta in November 2018 and her daughter was born in March 2020. The son of designer Roberto Torretta joined the communication area of Zara’s e-commerce division in September 2019.
In addition to being a businesswoman, wife, mother and daughter, Marta enjoys a passion for horses, fashion, art and culture, as evidenced in her chosen public activities. “I have always said that I would dedicate my life to developing the legacy of my parents, looking to the future, but learning from the past,” said Marta in The Wall Street Journal. Everything indicates that Marta carries in her genes the entrepreneurial capacity not only of her father but of her grandmother Josefa, as the founder of Inditex himself says in the biography written by Covadonga O’Shea. He has also inherited his discretion from his father.
Exquisitely educated by her mother, Flora Pérez, and her father, Marta learned languages with her British governess, Brigitte. In addition to Spanish and Galician, Marta speaks English, French and Italian. Her training, at the Jesuits and at a boarding school in Switzerland, included business studies at the University of A Coruña and at the European Business School London, where he graduated in 2007 specializing in International Entrepreneurship.