By Rick Mauch

Their friendship dates to their respective childhoods, even sharing the same first name. When it came time to go into business together, there was no one Elizabeth Martin and Elizabeth Wills trusted more.

“Elizabeth and I met as children, growing up in the same community and attending the same schools. We essentially grew up side-by-side, watching one another find our paths in different but complementary arenas,” Martin said.”

We went to the same church as kids—the Catholic community in Fort Worth is a close-knit group —and we are such close friends we can often finish each other’s thoughts. It’s really helpful, actually,” Wills said.

Today, they are co-owners of Wills+Martin business consulting group, which they started in 2025. They have offices in Fort Worth on S. Main in the Near Southside, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

“Together, we pull strategy and insight, governance and storytelling, data and understanding and what we come up with is pretty fool-proof,” Wills said. “Nothing is perfect, but we listen deeply, and when we sit in a room together, we can give each other the room to express, brainstorm, create, test and ultimately build, and it has never let us down.” 

Different starts

Wills became a musician and has recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles, along with playing popular events such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits music festivals.

Music is still an important part of her life as she applies her 30 years in the industry as a songwriter, performer and producer to her work at W+M.

Martin went into law. She served as an Assistant District Attorney in Tarrant County and then as an Assistant Attorney General in capital litigation for Texas, based in Austin.

From there, she moved into healthcare leadership in Santa Fe, ultimately becoming CEO for all of New Mexico at Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group. She was tapped to relocate to Washington, D.C., where she spent 15 years leading strategy and innovation for the public sector at Optum Health, working closely with the federal government.

Fort Worth roots

Wills’ great grandfather had a furniture business and her grandfather started Wills Electric in the early 1940s. She is proud to be fifth generation Fort Worth.

“My family has always been steeped in the entrepreneurial spirit that I deeply associate with Fort Worth,” she said. “When I pass Will Rogers, Casa Mañana, First United Methodist downtown, and other impactful structures throughout town, I think about my dad as a young guy helping wire those places, and how proud I am that he continued that legacy when he took over the reins, along with my brothers, through the 1990s until Wills Electric closed its doors.”

Her paternal grandfather was the electrical contractor for Los Alamos (near Santa Fe) in the 1940s.

“My dad grew up spending his summers there as a kid and my family has been going there for as long as I can remember,” she said.

Her maternal grandfather, Frank Mills was also an anchor—literally—in the Metroplex. He was the first voice on television here in 1948 when he was hired by Amon Carter, Jr. to work at WBAP.

“Yes, she only had to flip the M upside down when she married a Wills,” she said of her mother, with a chuckle.

As one of the founding families of Fort Worth, the fingerprints of Martin’s relatives are everywhere, especially the Fort Worth Macaroni Company—now O.B. Macaroni—founded in 1899 by Italian immigrants Louis Bicocchi and her great-great uncle Giovanni Battista Laneri. (What is now Nolan Catholic High School was created when Laneri—an all-boys school operating from 1921 to 1962—merged with Our Lady of Victory Academy, an all-girls school).

Her father, Bob Martin, was a fixture in the business community through Bob Martin Advertising Art. He also served on the city’s Historic Preservation Board, treating downtown as a living archive.

“In that way, my childhood unfolded at the crossroads of manufacturing, design and memory,” she said.

When her dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, Wills came home to get back to her roots.

“Being able to walk down the street where our offices are, knowing my family worked and lived not far from here, brings me comfort and motivation,” she said. “I have always felt a strong connection to the bones of the community here—business, arts and family.”

Martin said returning to open their offices locally feels like a literal and figurative homecoming.

“We are only a stone’s throw from where our families anchored their businesses, and there’s something profoundly satisfying about carrying that legacy forward in a way that is entirely our own,” she said.