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" Amancio Ortega is a 76-year-old Spaniard with some serious mystique. He owns about 60 percent of Inditex \u2014 the world&amp;#039;s largest fashion group \u2014 which he used to be chairman of and is flagshipped by his child: giant retailer (and occasional manufacturer of shoe porn) Zara. And he just kicked Warren Buffet out of the top-three of Forbes&amp;#039; latest ranking of billionaires. But unlike the Heinz-buying, letter-writing Buffett, Ortega is private. He&amp;#039;s never given an interview. No published photo existed of him till around 1999. And he&amp;#039;s paid half a million to paparazzi to keep photos of, say, his daughter&amp;#039;s honeymoon unpublished. Details about his life are scant, but he seems like quite the man. Here&amp;#039;s what we do know: \u2022 He&amp;#039;s getting richer faster than anyone else. His fortune surged by $22.2 billion last year, according to Bloomberg \u2014 a bit less than twice as fast as the world&amp;#039;s richest man, Carlos Slim. \u2022 The son of a housemaid and a railway worker, he grew up in a row house near the train tracks in La Coru\u00F1a. He now lives in either an apartment building (says Business Insider) or a five-story house that faces the sea (says Fortune). He also owns one of the tallest skyscrapers in Madrid, and a country home, where he raises chickens and goats. \u2022 One night when Ortega was thirteen, he decided to drop out of school after, according to Fortune, he became so embarrassed by his mother&amp;#039;s pennilessness. \u2022 As a teenager he worked for a shirtmaker, folding clothes with the man&amp;#039;s son, who now owns the place and told Fortune, &amp;quot;No one ever comes in here to buy anything. They just want to know about Amancio.&amp;quot; \u2022 In 1975, he built his first store a couple blocks away from that shop. He wanted to name it Zorba \u2014 after a 1964 film, Zorba the Greek \u2014 but per the Times, a local bar already had the name, so he rearranged the sign&amp;#039;s letter molds. \u2022 He doesn&amp;#039;t have an office. Instead, he just sits at a desk in an open workspace. One of Zara&amp;#039;s department heads told Fortune, &amp;quot;You can ask Ortega&amp;quot; \u2014 apparently he goes by his last name among co-workers \u2014 &amp;quot;&amp;#039;What do you think of this?&amp;#039; It&amp;#039;s very flexible.&amp;quot; He wears the same thing to work day in and day out: a blue blazer, white shirt, and some gray pants \u2014 none of which are made by Zara. \u2022 He drives an Audi A8 (a nominee for our car of the year in 2011), eats eggs and fries every morning, and hikes through pilgrimage routes in Galicia. He also dislikes flying, but owns a private jet, The Global Express BD-700. \u2022 His daughter, Marta Ortega-Perez (next to him, above), loves horses, which is why he built this equestrian center; she also made Business Insider&amp;#039;s list of &amp;quot;The World&amp;#039;s Hottest Billionaire Offspring.&amp;quot; But she&amp;#039;s taken by this guy, a Spanish equestrian. She&amp;#039;s also said to be expecting a baby boy and, along with her sister and brother, one day take control of the company. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/a25782/third-richest-mystery-man/?click=news>