Pablo Isla puts Amancio Ortega as an example of leadership: "Now we are very friends"

19 Feb. () –

The former executive president of Inditex and current president of the International Governing Council of IE University, Pablo Isla, has praised Amancio Ortega as an example of leadership for his “vision” and “ambition”, and has indicated that the level of understanding they reached in the management of the company has now turned into a friendship.

“It is the closest thing to being a family without being a family. I would say that at the beginning the level of understanding between us was quite obvious. Now we are very close friends,” Isla specified in an interview published this Sunday by the Financial Times, in which she has also asserted that the founder of Inditex knows how to “always get the best out of everyone around him”.

Likewise, Isla has recounted that when he was still CEO of the company, he preferred to keep a “low profile” because he thought it would be the best for the company.

Regarding his time in office, he has also stressed that what was essential for him was “leading with values”. “Honesty, reliability, respect, transparency, diversity. With your employees, investors, the media, suppliers and all interested parties. I have always tried to be very reliable, someone who can be trusted”, he added.

In this regard, he stressed that he opted to diversify the company’s leadership in different parts of the world, especially in relation to gender and racial diversity.

Isla has also recalled that when he took office, a deadline was not set to be in it. “Whatever I do, I think about doing it indefinitely. I think it’s the only way to face your professional life,” he said about it.

When he left office in 2022, Marta Ortega assumed the presidency. About her, Isla has pointed out that they shared many “family moments” and has expressed her confidence in how the succession and the management team of the company have been organized.

On the other hand, Isla, a lawyer by training, has indicated that if he had not been able to develop his career in the positions where he has been, he would have opened his own law firm or, “in a completely different direction”, “perhaps he would have been director of cinema”.