Long-standing Zara Womenswear director Beatriz Padín departs Inditex after 25 years

Madrid – At a time of particular significance for Inditex, and especially for its leading fashion chain Zara, the Spanish company has just announced the departure of veteran executive Beatriz Padín. A key figure within the group for the past 40 years, Padín has spent the last 25 as the director of its primary business line: the Zara womenswear division.

Inditex's management announced the news in a statement sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). Beatriz Padín has decided to end her professional career with the Inditex group, consequently stepping down from all her responsibilities at both Zara and Inditex. For the past 25 years, she has been the director of the Zara Womenswear division, the highest-grossing division of the group's main fashion chain.

From a broader perspective, she also held a position on the Spanish fashion multinational's Management Committee. This committee was established as part of the organisational restructuring process initiated by the Board of Directors on November 29, 2021. It was designed to support the chief executive officer of Inditex, a role held by Óscar García Maceiras since that same month.

Following her departure, the management of Zara Womenswear will be taken over by Alfredo Ferro Varela. Since 2013, Varela has been the director of “Zara Basic”, one of the three main verticals within the Zara Womenswear division. Inditex expressed its confidence in his ability to succeed in the role, highlighting his more than 30 years of experience within the group, during which he has held various positions of responsibility at both Zara and other company chains.

Regarding this change in leadership at Zara Womenswear, Inditex's management praised the expertise of its former executive. “Inditex’s Management wishes to highlight the great contribution of Beatriz Padín to the company over more than four decades,” the group's management stated. They added that during these years, she “has undertaken tasks of great importance, including the direction of Zara Womenswear for the last 25 years, and has contributed very significantly to the performance and evolution of Zara”. She is credited with promoting some of the chain's most impactful initiatives in recent years, such as the creation of the “El Apartamento” de Zara spaces and the launch of its resale and upcycling platform, “Zara Pre-Owned”.

Management committee reduced from ten to nine positions

Padín, who is married to Francisco Galán, director of the equally strategic area of in-store technology, has been part of the Inditex Management Committee since its inception. Following her departure, the Spanish fashion multinational has restructured this body, eliminating one position and reducing it to a total of only nine members. Consequently, Alfredo Ferro Varela will not be joining the committee, which Inditex describes as a forum for “collective decision-making in executive management, based on a cross-cutting vision of the entire business” of the group.

Consequently, following the elimination of this position, the Inditex Management Committee, after Beatriz Padín's departure, will now consist of: Miguel Díaz Miranda, chief financial and operating officer of Zara; Ignacio Fernández Fernández, corporate general manager; Antonio Flórez de la Fuente, director of Bershka; Javier García Torralbo, director of digital; Begoña López-Cano Ibarreche, general manager of people; Jorge Pérez Marcote, director of Massimo Dutti and brother-in-law of Amancio Ortega and uncle of Marta Ortega Pérez; Óscar Pérez Marcote, director of Zara and also brother-in-law and uncle of the founder and current chairwoman of Inditex; Andrés Sánchez Iglesias, chief financial officer of Inditex; and Jordi Triquell Valls, director of Stradivarius.