Zara's mysterious founder, Amancio Ortega, has just been named as the richest person in Europe, and the second richest in the whole world.
Data from Wealth-X, puts his net worth at more than $65 billion, making him richer than Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The 79-year old fashion tycoon also has a worth of $27 billion more than his closest European challenger, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad.
In October 2015, Ortega's net worth climbed to more than $80 billion when Zara's parent company Inditex's stock peaked, and he briefly became the world's richest man, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes.
Inditex's stock fell soon afterwards, and after just four hours, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June 2015 by knocking Warren Buffett into third.
But despite his enormous net worth, many people have never heard of him.
Ortega is an incredibly private man, is rarely seen in public, and has given just a handful of interviews throughout his incredibly successful career.
That career began when Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Inditex SA — which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear — has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara is changing retail forever.
While Ortega is immensely private, we do know a fair amount about him, and Business Insider decided to put together everything we know about Ortega's life. Check it out below.
Amancio Ortega is the second-richest man in the world, with a net worth estimated at $65 billion. He was born in the town of Busdongo de Arbas, Spain, in March 1936.
Source: Bloomberg
This is his second wife, Flora. The couple has been married since 2001.
Source: Bloomberg
In August 2013, his ex-wife and Zara cofounder, Rosalia Mera, died at 69. She was Spain's richest woman. Ortega and Mera married in 1966, and were divorced in 1986.
Source: Associated Press
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
