Anna Myint, one-half of the brother-sister team behind International Market, has been named to the 2025 fall cohort of the James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) Program. WEL is a prestigious 11-week virtual program in which owners and co-owners of brick-and-mortar food and beverage businesses in the United States get to sharpen their leadership skills and develop a star-studded professional network.
Myint is the third woman from Tennessee to be named to a WEL cohort and the only one in 2025. Sarah Gavigan (Otaku Ramen) was part of the group in 2019, and Henrietta Red’s Julia Sullivan was part of the 2024 class. The 21 women selected collectively own 42 businesses and have an average business revenue in 2024 of more than $2.9 million. Myint is thrilled, she says, to get to learn from these women, noting that because none of the other members are local, there’s no sense of competition.
“I had a physical reaction when they told me I was selected,” Myint says of her excitement in being named. She has applied and not been accepted in the past and is thrilled to be part of the group this year.
Over a three-month period, the cohorts will identify solutions to improve operations and internal processes and develop sustainable strategies to scale and increase revenue in addition to supporting one another.
Myint children own new business across the street from original, established in 1975
Other participants chosen for the competition program this year include Lawren Askinosie of Askinosie Chocolate in Missouri, Lavanya Mahate of Saffron Valley Restaurants in Utah and Pei Shan Wei of Zaab Zaab in New York.
Myint has an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, so she’s no stranger to business management, competitive environments or receiving deserved accolades. In 2023 she was part of Nashville Emerging Leaders as well as Leadership Connect through the Nashville Chamber of Commerce.
With her brother Arnold, Anna Myint is overseeing the 50th anniversary of International Market, the restaurant their parents founded. It was the city’s first Thai restaurant and Asian grocery when it opened in 1975. The original closed in 2019, after their mother passed away, and in 2021 the two reopened the business across Belmont Boulevard from the original’s location.
Their Thai restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, and they honor their mother’s recipes and offer modern takes on Thai dishes and dining. At IM, Myint oversees front-of-house, finances and communications for the business, while her brother oversees the kitchen and back-of-house.
