Mary Aregoni
Founder, Saigon Sisters

Mary Nguyen Aregoni founded Saigon Sisters in 2009 with her sister out of a desire to become an entrepreneur just like her mother and grandmother did in Vietnam. Her background was in Marketing and IT at Procter and Gamble where she worked for 20 years supporting their Sales organization. Her jobs took her all over the world and her interest in the hospitality business peaked when she lived in Brussels, Belgium, New York, and Chicago. She noticed that there was an increased interest in Asian cuisine, particularly Vietnamese but there wasn't any recognizable brand in this market segment.

In 2009, she took a leap of faith and started Saigon Sisters at the Chicago French Market, the first food hall in Chicago selling Vietnamese Banh mi sandwiches out of a 200 sq ft kiosk. Mary uses her ingenuity and marketing knowledge to propel Saigon Sisters into a popular local brand that is redefining the Chicago-area food scene serving Vietnamese food and plan to scale it nationally. Currently, she has 3 locations, 2 are in the downtown Chicago business district and 1 inside Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and is planning to open more locations such as airports and main attraction areas before the pandemic.

During her 11 year entrepreneurial journey, she played an active role to support and advocate for women in the hospitality industry.  She's a member of Les Dames D'escoffier, NAWBO, Women's food forum, and helped start www.LetsTalkWomxn.com in Chicago during the pandemic to help women-owned restaurateurs banned together to collaborate and save our businesses which has now expanded nationwide and has over 600 members.

She is also an alumni and fellow of programs such as Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses, Inner City Capital Connections, Neighborhood Entrepreneurial Lab, and James Beard Women Leadership program to develop herself into a strong leader and help/mentor other women to succeed in this competitive field. She loves to coach and develop her employees into star performers and help other entrepreneurs to find solutions to survive through the biggest challenge that hospitality has ever faced.