The co-founder of global fashion brand Zara and the richest woman in Spain, Rosalia Mera, has died at the age of 69 after suffering a stroke while on holiday in the Balearic island of Menorca.
Mera was transferred to the private San Rafael hospital in Coruna, northern Spain, where she died on Thursday evening, a hospital source said. She had been on holiday in Menorca with her daughter Sandra.
Listed by Forbes this year as the world’s 195th richest billionaire with a fortune of US$6.1 billion (S$7.76 billion), the highest-placed among Spanish women, she was also described as the richest self-made woman in the world.
Mera dropped out of school at 11 and started work as a seamstress at 13 before going on to found the Inditex textile giant alongside her husband Amancio Ortega, whom she later divorced.
Ortega is listed by Forbes as the world’s third-richest man with US$57 billion.
AFP
