I left school at 12: today I'm a billionaire but nobody knows me

This man is one of the richest people on the planet. No one knows his name, but his products are bought by millions of people every day.

Some billionaires are well-known to the general public: Bernard Arnault or Vincent Bolloré for the French, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk for the Americans. But worldwide, more than 2,700 people have a fortune of at least 10 figures. These very rich people are mostly very discreet, as is often the rule in the business world. But if the business is so flourishing, it's because there are necessarily a large number of customers. However, these customers often don't know who they're really buying a product from.

While the bosses of some brands are high-profile or famous, many hold secret empires. This is notably the case for the second richest man in Europe, behind Bernard Arnault. His fortune climbed again last year, according to the latest Forbes 2025 ranking, now standing at $123 billion, $20 billion more than last year. Yet his career is worthy of a Hollywood script.

Born to a railway worker father and a domestic mother, having left school at 12 to go to work and provide for the family household, Amancio Ortega Gaona has nevertheless become the 9th richest person in the world, the 2nd richest person in the Old Continent and the 1st richest person in Spain. Does his name mean anything to you? Millions of French people buy his clothes every year. This native of La Coruña, now 89 years old, is quite simply the founder and former boss of Zara.

In France, his story is unknown. As a teenager, when he had no choice but to work, this Spaniard launched himself into ready-to-wear clothing, at the very bottom of the ladder. First a courier and then a tailor, he began by making various garments in the 1950s and 1960s, before launching his own business in his hometown: GOA (his initials backwards), which became Zara in 1975.

Originally, the brand was supposed to be called Zorba, after the famous 1960s film. However, a bar near the first store was already named that, and Amancio Ortega Gaona had to change the name, even though he had received the necessary letters to put up his sign. So it was transformed into Zara.

Since then, it's an understatement to say that the octogenarian has had a success story, with more than 5,800 stores now open worldwide and 170,000 employees. In France, the brand is the leader in ready-to-wear with a turnover of nearly 1.8 billion euros. Now retired, Amancio Ortega Gaona remains the majority shareholder of the brand, which also owns Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, and Stradivarius. All while living in the utmost discretion in the depths of Galicia.