Bill Gates loses position as World’s richest man, surprise name emerges

The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, has beaten Bill Gates in the number one position of the world’s richest man.

In a new release by Forbes on Wednesday, Ortega beat out Bill Gates to become the richest person on Earth.

He currently has a $200 million edge over Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, due in part to a particularly good week for the stock of Inditex, Zara’s parent company.

Forbes said that Ortega has crowded the world’s richest person three other times, but has always surrendered the No. 1 position within a day.

Despite Ortega’s enormous net worth, many people have never heard of him.

He is described as an incredibly private man rarely seen in public, and has given just a handful of interviews throughout his incredibly successful career.

Ortega’s career began when he founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975.

His retail company Inditex SA, which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear, has 7,385 outposts around the world.