The founder of Inditex, the parent company behind Zara, Bershka and Massimi Dutto, amongst others, is to step down from the presidency of the business (read article in Catalan here, Avui). Amancio Ortega yesterday sent a letter to the 90,000 employees of the company he created in the Seventies, to let them know that at the next shareholders' meeting of the business (planned for July) he would be giving up the role of Inditex president in favour of Pablo Isla, the company's current managing director and vice-president. Ortega, who is about to celebrate his 75th birthday, said that he will remain on the company's board of directors and thanked the staff for their hard work. Ortega is notoriously publicity-shy (there are very few known photos of him in circulation), but the striking success of the textile company he created in Galicia has, paradoxically, made him into a popular subject for business and media analysis. He was born in León in 1936, but has lived and worked for many years in Galicia, and is now one of the 10 richest men in the world. Ortega was inspired to start his own company as a young boy after seeing the hardships that his mother suffered when bringing up her family, and was determined that they shouldn't have to live in debt; he left school and at age 12 went to work as an apprentice in a shirt shop. Today, Inditex has an annual turnover of some €11 billion.