Wikipedia Biodata / Profile Background
Introduction and Personal Life :
The businesswoman and entrepreneur Rosalía Mera was born in La Coruña, Galicia, Spain. Well-recognized for being Zara’s co-founder and once ranked 66 among the most powerful women in the world, she was known to be the wealthiest woman in Spain.
Early Life and Education :
- Rosalía was born on 28th January 1944, in Monte Alto (La Coruña), Spain.
- Her bright future was not expected: she was born and raised within a very poor family. Their lack of money had forced her to drop her studies at the age of 11 when she became a seamstress.
- This is when she started rising from the very bottom until finally reaching the top.
Relationships, Marriage and Family Life :
- Rosalía’s name was generally related to her husband Amancio Ortega, with whom she was together for twenty years.
- Rosalía and Amancio started their own business designing clothes at home. With hard work, the couple turned their small business into the multinational Inditex, the most important corporation in Spain valued at multi-million dollars.
- She divorced Amancio Ortega in 1986. By then, they had already had two children: Sandra Ortega Mera and Marcos Ortega Mera.
- Her son was born with a severe disability; this really marked her life and the paths she chose. He influenced her into studying psychology and working together with certain organizations.
- After her breakup with Amancio, Rosalía was never known to have any other official relationship.
Career and Professional Life :
- Businesswoman and entrepreneur, she was the co-founder of Zara, which launched her to fame.
- She worked together with her ex-husband in the multinational Inditex, although after her divorce, she only held a 7% stake in the company. Today, Inditex has over 6000+ stores in over 86 countries and over 120,000 employees.
- In May 2013, she opposed the reform of the Abortion Law in Spain, promoted by Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, who wanted to change the law approved by the government Of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2010.
- She expressed her position against the economic reforms implemented as a consequence of the Great Recession and the Spanish Crisis of 2008-2013.
- She died on August 15, 2013, in La Coruña, from a severe stroke.
Personality and Interesting Facts :
- Forbes estimated her net worth to be 4.6 Billion euros at the time of her death.
- After her first son’s death and with her immersion in psychoanalysis, Rosalía began to volunteer in the department of early attention of the social services of Xunta.
- She collaborated with the foundation of new companies linked mostly to information and communication technologies, the audiovisual sector and the music industry with an investment of six million euros and subsidies.
- Occasionally, she was known to have an obsession with saving up, which made many people believe, amusingly, that she was rather stingy.
- Her employees had described her as a really strict and demanding personality; “she could suddenly present herself in any corner to control the schedule or even the tasks of the cleaning personnel.