William Theisen

William Theisen, who goes by the nickname "Willy", is a restaurant entrepreneur from Omaha, Nebraska, born in Clinton, Iowa. He was the owner of Godfathers Pizza, a popular pizzeria chain that has locations in over 40 states. Theisen got the idea to start a pizza chain when he was running his own bar called "Wild Willys." He noticed many of the customers carry their pizza from the Godfather's Pizza next door into his bar to eat it and he decided to remove the wall separating the two businesses. The first Godfathers opened in 1973. Many locations opened throughout the country and Theisen looked to have a hit on his hands. He sold his interest and ownership in the company in the mid 1980's to Pillsbury and stepped down from operating the company. Pillsbury has long since sold the restaurant chain.

Since then, Theisen owns and runs franchises of many other national restaurants, including Fuddruckers, Green Burrito and Famous Dave's.