Marta Ortega to be the New Chairwoman of Inditex

Marta Ortega Pérez, the daughter of Amancio Ortega who owns 3,275 properties in London, has been appointed as the new chair of Inditex, one of the most popular fashion giants and home to brands like Oysho and Zara. Born in 1984, Marta Ortega has gained this prestigious position as of December 2021. Ortega replaced Pablo Isla who has been the chairperson of Inditex since 2011. It is also believed that Ortega will be declared the president of the company on 1 April 2022. Pablo Isla has served the company for 9 long years as the chairman of Inditex. However, now the position will be undertaken by Marta Ortega who has been long associated with the company, nearly 15 years or more. Ortega has started her career as an aide at Inditex's famous brand named Bershka. The 37-year-old claimed that she will dedicate her life to taking forward the legacy put forth by her parents. She is extremely excited to join Inditex as its chairperson. According to Ortega, this company is close to her heart as she is attached to it right from her childhood. She, at the same time, considers herself lucky to have got the privilege to work with the company for 15 years as an assistant and learn a great deal from renowned professionals in Madrid, London, NYC, Tokyo and Paris.Marta Ortega worked hard to strengthen the image of the company's top brands including that of the company’s leading collections. She also helped in product designing and development at Zara and took the brand to new heights with her creativity. She also gained enough experience working for Inditex’s stores in Paris, Spain, and Milan to name a few.  

Interestingly, Marta Ortega is also entitled to be the senior creative consultant. She has worked day and night of Zara’s women collection and gave a new edge to the clothes for women. 

Before Pablo Isa, Amancio Ortega was the chairman of Inditex. He founded the company in a partnership with his former wife. 

According to Forbes, Mr Ortega is one of the world's wealthiest men, with an estimated net worth of $77.8bn (£58.3bn).

Inditex is a fast-moving fashion company whose brands also include Pull & Bear. With over 6000 firms worldwide, Inditex dominates the High Street fashion industry with its latest collection and trendy fashion clothing and accessories. The company's Spanish headquarters are where most of its fashion clothing is manufactured. Besides Spain, countries such as Portugal, Morocco, and Turkey also help the company to keep itself abreast of the latest fashion trends.

It was 15 years ago that Marta Ortega started her journey with Inditex in a shop in London. Now she will be taking over as the company's chairwoman, supervising somewhere around 7,000 stores, more than 8,000 factories, and a market value of $100bn.

But is she the right candidate for such a big responsibility? Well, according to her, she has grown around the company and learned a great deal from the people working there over a period of 15 years. However, to some, it will appear as a job preference given to a fellow family member just to carry forward the family business. Are there other deserving candidates who are likely to do more justice to this position? It's too early to predict anything or come to a conclusion.

Whatever be the case, one thing that no one can deny is the hardships and responsibilities that come with a dignified position. It is certain that Marta Ortega will have to face major challenges to keep up the good name of the company all the more when indeed shares in Inditex have fallen on the news of the appointment creating challenges for the new chief executive Óscar García Maceiras. 

Also, the consumers of fast brands are becoming much more aware than ever before regarding the environmental concerns that fast fashion creates. If seen through this angle, Zara is not in a good position as it has made fast fashion readily available at affordable rates, and hence, increased the consumption of fast fashion over the years. Nonetheless, consumers are now shifting away from fast fashion due to environmental concerns putting brands like Zara in an awkward position.

Another concern that Ortega will have to deal with is that of the supply chain. Zara's plan to double its floor space has been recently rejected by authorities in the French city of Bordeaux on a claim that the fashion brand has made its name by exploiting the human resource of the forced labour of Uighurs in China.

Nonetheless, it appears that the new chief and chairwoman will not take any decisions before consulting Amancio. It's difficult to run Inditex without the involvement of its founder and it will stand true even today. 

At the age of 80, Amancio is still very much involved with the company. 

Everyone is currently of the opinion that the new chief executive and Ortega have to really work hard to prove their worth. Just after Ortega became the new chairperson of the company, Inditex's share went down by almost 5%. Well, Pablo Isla has expanded the company massively in the past year. But now the question is how will Ortega manage to retain the image of such a giant enterprise.

Moreover, it is believed that the time of Ortega's appointment isn't right as the world is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. In such difficult times, running such a big monster becomes all the more challenging.

The fall in shares clearly shows that the investors are not sure how Ortega will handle the company. However, Maureen Hinton, retail research director at Global Data, says it's not right to make assumptions about the future of Inditex and its owner.

According to her, it's difficult to beat the company as it still has many experienced people working under them including Carlos Crespo and Oscar Maceiras, and the same she told the BBC. She further adds that there's no way that these two highly-experienced members will leave the company anytime soon.