Zara founder's daughter, Marta Ortega gets reins in surprise rejig

Inditex SA announced a surprise revamp of its top management by elevating the founder's daughter and naming a new CEO after just two years. Marta Ortega, 37, will become chairwoman next year, a long-awaited generational change that surprised investors because it was accompanied by the immediate replacement of CEO Carlos Crespo with Oscar Garcia Maceiras.

The reshuffle marks the exit of Executive Chairman Pablo Isla, 57, who spearheaded Inditex's expansion phase for more than a decade, bolstering the company's market value six-fold to $100 billion. Inditex became one of the first major European clothing retailers to reach pre-pandemic levels in sales and profit as the Zara owner benefited from a push into online.