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Meet the staff of Baker & Company

Ford Baker, CPA
Shareholder
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

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 Advanced Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor and currently has over 100 installations of QuickBooks working for a variety of small businesses throughout the United States. 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 Ford, CPA
Tax and Accounting Services
Senior Accounting Advisor
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

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 Advanced Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor in November of 2005 and became a CPA in February of 2008.
Julia's comfortable 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.

 

 

Rachel Stas
Tax and Emerging Business Services

Rachel was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She became proficient in Quickbooks for small and emerging businesses while working her way through college and obtaining her combined Bachelor's and Master's of Accountancy from the University of Oklahoma in 2008. She headed to Dallas, working on the tax side of oil and gas, and wealth management in a national firm until 2010. Preferring the less compartmentalized and more flexible atmosphere of a successful local firm, she feels she has found a home with Baker and Company. As of May 2010 Rachel had passed all four parts of the CPA exam, and is looking forward to becoming a second generation CPA.

In her free time, Rachel has a passion for all kinds of music, reading, running and hanging out with her friends. She has been fortunate enough to travel fairly extensively in her life and intends to keep traveling when she can.

 

 

Cheryl Giddens
Tax and Emerging Business Services
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Cheryl attended the University of Texas where she studied accounting before beginning her career at a locally owned and operated fashion design studio. She started a consulting business helping businesses with their internal books and records primarily utilizing QuickBooks before joining the firm in 1998. In November 2005, Cheryl successfully obtained the designation of Advanced 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 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.

 

 

Allison Ates, CPA
Accounting Advisor
Tax and Accounting Services

Allison was born and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana. After graduating from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1994 with a her degree in Accounting, she began her career in Louisiana at a local public accounting firm, until making her way to Dallas in 1997. She spent the next 11 years at a local firm in Dallas, focusing on tax compliance for high wealth individuals and emerging privately held businesses. She came to Baker & Company as a solid match on that side and brings a significant amount of experience to the table in that area as well as having a heavy concentration on real estate. Before joining Baker and Company in the spring of 2010, she spent the previous couple of years helping her husband develop his own commercial and residential roofing contracting business, Atco Roofing LLC. Like many of the advisors you will meet at Baker & Company, not only does she have experience in tax situations for a small business but she also helps run one, on QuickBooks.

Allison is married to her high school sweetheart, Robby. When she is not at the office, she is busy raising their four young children. She enjoys filling her remaining time running, biking and swimming, while still carving out time to take on volunteer leadership roles in the Lake Highlands Junior Women’s League and their elementary school PTA, as well as being active in their church, Park Cities Baptist Church.

 

Stefanie Crane, CPA
Accounting Advisor
Attestation and Emerging Business Services

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.

 

Joe Abesamis
Tax and Emerging Business Services

Joe was born in Orange County, CA and received his Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting from Biola University in 2006. While at Biola, he interned at Broadcom Corporation serving in the purchasing department as the US Vendor Qualification Administrator. Upon graduation, he worked at a local CPA firm called Haynie & Co. in Newport Beach for a year. While there he gained valuable experience working with emerging businesses on everything from their financial records and tax returns to business valuations and litigation support. Joe also worked at Probe Ministries as a bookkeeper which gave him experience in the non-profit sector. In 2007 he moved to Dallas to pursue his Th.M degree (Masters in Theology) with an emphasis on Pastoral leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary. While he attends seminary, Joe is putting his prior experience to use by working with us.

In his spare time, Joe spends Saturday morning mentoring kids from the inner city to encourage them to finish school. He loves to read books on theology and leadership. In addition, he is an avid guitarist and drummer. He attends the Village Church in Highland Village.

 

Sarah Pratt,
Tax Intern

Sarah Pratt is working on obtaining her Masters in Accounting with a focus on Taxation at the University of North Texas. She is originally from Longview, Texas and joined the firm after visiting with us at the Fall 2009 Career Fair.

 

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 with her parents Oil and Gas delivery company - handling the daily office and financial functions while assisting her parents with the day to day administration of a company operating a fleet of 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 many of the internal aspects including office management, record keeping, and the billing for Baker and Company.

 

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.

 

Melissa Mitchell,
Administrative Assistant

Melissa was born in Dallas, Texas, just down the road at Baylor Medical Center. However, her family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was two where she lived until she graduated from high school. Melissa then went on to the University of Missouri to pursue a degree in journalism, but later transferred to Oklahoma State University where she graduated with a B.A. in Public Relations in 2007. After various jobs working for Young Life and her church, Melissa decided to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where she is currently working towards her M.A. in Biblical Counseling, with hopes of working with adolescents and families upon graduation. She moved to Dallas in August 2009 and soon thereafter joined the Baker and Company team as the Office Assistant.

When not in class or at work, Melissa enjoys reading, live music, finding the best coffee in Dallas, running, spending time with her family and friends, and, when possible, seeing the world. She has traveled to various countries, including studying abroad in France, and hopes to continue to travel over the years.