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Meet the staff of Baker & Company

Ford Baker, Owner

Ford was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1986 and began his accounting career with the Houston office of the national firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells. Following a return to Dallas, Ford joined the firm of Saville, Dodgen and Company progressing to Manager. After serving as the Chief Financial Officer for the North Texas Franchise of Terminix International he began his own tax and consulting practice in Deep Ellum near downtown Dallas. In 2003, he moved his practice to its current location on Canton Street where it has continued to enjoy double digit annual growth.

Ford is a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor and currently has over 100 installations of QuickBooks working for a variety of small businesses throughout Dallas. Whether it is a sole proprietor looking for the best way to handle his accounting or a large company with multiple divisions and many employees, he works to make sure that their accounting works for them and not, as it often seems, ownership working for their accounting. He is also proficient in Peachtree, MAS 2000, Great Plains, Microsoft Office, as well as the entire Intuit family of tax and accounting products. He is a trusted advisor for Intuit, advising the QuickBooks development team on how Intuit can better meet the needs of small business owners and the accounting industry. He is a member of the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Ford has been married for over 20 years to his wife, Linda. They have two children, Katie and Will. Ford and Linda are active members at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.

Julia Janis, Senior Accounting Advisor

Julia is a Certified Public Accountant who started her career at Baker & Company in August of 2002. She obtained her Master of Science in Accounting and Information Management from the University of Texas at Dallas in August 2006. Julia became a QuickBooks Certified Pro Advisor in November of 2005 and became a CPA in February of 2008.

Julia'scomfortable style and diligence in finding the right answer have quickly gained the confidence of many of our clients as she works with them to meet their tax and accounting needs.

Julia is the youngest of 5 children from Clute, Texas — home of The Great Texas Mosquito Festival, where at the tender age of 5 she won the coveted Mosquito Calling Contest. She came to Dallas to attend the University of Texas at Dallas in the year 2000.Julia and Christopher recently purchased their first home in Richardson in August of 2006. They share space with their two cats, Buckwheat and Sparky.

Cheryl Giddens, Accounting Advisor

Cheryl attended the University of Texas where she studied accounting before beginning her career in accounting at a locally owned and operated fashion design studio. She started an accounting consulting business before joining the firm in 1998. In November 2005, Cheryl successfully obtained the designation of Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor and is an experienced tax consultant, able to assist our clients not only in setting up their software, but integrating it with our system to work more efficiently at tax time.

Cheryl is relied upon at our firm for her leadership by example, work ethic and concise communication style. Cheryl is a trusted and reliable part of our team.

When not at Baker & Company, Cheryl assists her husband, Thad, in their new furniture repair and restoration business, Restoration Plus. Thad and Cheryl have been married for 15 years . They have two daughters, Lauren and Molly and are active members at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.

Jenni Woodward, Accounting Advisor

Jennifer was employed at the national accounting firm Arthur Andersen, LLP for five years. Subsequently, she worked for a local accounting firm and for the national firm of Grant Thornton, LLP. She has nine years of public accounting experience in several different capacities including tax and finance. She has also worked in a variety of industries as an independent tax specialist brought in for special projects. She has a wide variety of expertise with not for profits, corporations, partnerships and with all issues related to individual taxation.

Jennifer graduated from Texas A&M University in 1997 with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting and completed her Masters in Business Administration in 1999 at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has been a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas since 1997.

Jennifer and her husband Scott are residents of Frisco, Texas and are the proud parents of three lovely little girls, Caroline, Clara, and Catharine.

Stefanie Crane, Accounting Advisor

Stefanie is originally from Edmond, Oklahoma.  She graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Accounting in May 1995 from Oklahoma State University and completed her Masters of Science in Accounting the following year. Stefanie became a Certified Public Accountant in November 1996 and is currently licensed in the state of Texas.

For almost seven years, Stefanie was employed at the national accounting firm KPMG LLP. During her tenure at KPMG, she served companies in various industries and consulted on matters related to accounting, financial statement preparation and corporate taxation. Stefanie was part of the management group at KPMG and had responsibility for overseeing all aspects of client service, including supervision of staff and senior level accountants, presentation of reports to top level management and the board of directors, as well as serving on various committees within the firm.  For the past three years, Stefanie has provided services to various clients related to individual taxation and bookkeeping on a contract basis.

Stefanie has been a Frisco, Texas resident since 2004 and has been married to Clint Crane for 6 years.  Their daughter Callie is 4 years old, and their twins Cooper and Chloe are 2 years old.  They are active members of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.

Christopher Ford, Client Relations Manager

Christopher joined the Baker & Company team in November of 2003. His role as Client Relations Manager allows his excellent communication skills and great sense of humor to be fully utilized. Christopher ensures that the day to day operations of our team run smoothly and follows up with each client regarding appointments, deadlines, project fulfillment and general goodwill.

Christopher came to Dallas from Nacogdoches in 2000. He is an accomplished photographer and owns and operates his own photography studio, Christopher Ford Photography, where he handles a variety of events like weddings, corporate events, family portraits and modeling portfolios. He shot all of the images currently used on our web-site and, as you can see, did a fantastic job. You will be able to see more of his work in a Deep Ellum Art Studio opening soon, additionally, he is displaying some of his work in our office now. We would love for you to come by and see it.

Linda Baker, Benefits and Office Management

Linda attended Texas A&M University where she studied Management, she moved to Houston with Ford and began to work with insurance. Upon returning to Dallas she worked in accounting with her parents Oil and Gas delivery company - handling the daily accounting functions while assisting her parents with the day to day administration of a company operating several trucks and drivers. After her parents shut down their business and moved toward retirement she began working with benefits administration and implements those skills today by overseeing and managing our company's insurance benefits and working closely with our agents and carriers to make sure all employees are adequately covered. Additionally, Linda assists Ford with the accounting aspects of Baker and Company.