A St. Louis CPA You Can Actually Talk To

Like other Dark Horse CPAs, Stella started her career at a Big 4 accounting firm. However, that she’d find herself a Dark Horse CPA may not have been as predictable. Stella was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. As she was just about to complete a degree in political science (literally in her final semester) at Sookmyung Women’s University, she made a bold move by dropping out and transferring to Angelo State University to become an exchange student. To further expand her horizons, she opted for this small college in a small town because it was so different from the big city and college she had left. In the U.S. of A, she discovered two things that she now loves, her husband and accounting. While the former might have been expected, the latter… maybe not as much.

After a tour of the Big 4 and Fortune 500, she realized she wanted to start her own practice, focusing on small businesses instead of the large ones she worked for until that point. Some might point out that these moves from big to small have been a theme for Stella. Dark Horse CPAs, oddly enough, has that exact focus and the tools she needed to start her own practice. Seizing the opportunity, she left corporate America behind to become a Dark Horse.

When not balancing the books or crafting strategic tax plans, Stella can be found outside hiking, camping, kayaking, etc. In fact, you might spot her at a national park, as she has it on her bucket list to go to all national parks in the U.S. Or, she might be taking her Great Pyrenees/German Shepard named Cooper for a walk around the block. By night, you might spot her at the hippest of restaurants, indulging her foodie proclivities.

John Warner is a principal at Dark Horse CPAs. His career began working for the “Dark Side” – the (gasp) Internal Revenue Service. After a year of enduring the painfully terrible jokes about the IRS that came about conversationally when John mentioned his employer (example: “You better be careful about what you say to John because he’ll turn you in”), John decided to put the jokes to rest by entering public accounting at a large national CPA firm, where he spent seven years growing a national tax real estate practice which served large, international real estate investment and management firms.

Throughout his tenure at the large firm, he couldn’t shake the idea that he could be doing more to help small businesses in his own community. This desire to work with small businesses led him to start his own practice catered to the “little guy” – going so far as to set up a firm and start advertising around town. But as usually happens with the best-laid plans, they went out the window when he serendipitously came across a job posting for Dark Horse CPAs. After talking to Chase and Max, the founders of Dark Horse, John realized he had met two guys who were already practicing what he was hoping to preach. Things moved fast – three weeks, some phone calls, and a job offer later, he was on a plane to San Diego to meet the team (his wife being legitimately concerned it might be a “Taken/Hostel/Saw/other scary movie here,” situation. Fortunately, it was not). Since then, John has been living his professional dream, assisting small businesses and individuals to improve their tax and financial position.

John grew up in St. Louis, MO, and still lives there. He went to college at Truman State University, where, within the first hour on campus, he met his future wife, Kendra. John and Kendra have three kids; Will, Annalise, and Patrick – and (usually) they are great kids. John (and Will) are fans of the St. Louis Cardinals and Blues (Stanley Cup Champs!), and since Kendra is a diehard Chiefs fan (she’s from Kansas City), John is more than willing to jump on that winning bandwagon.

When he’s not working or hanging out with the family, John pretends to train for marathons or finds projects to complete around the house on the family’s “fixer-upper.”