Julie Strader
Her ever present cup of coffee nearby, Julie Strader, Taylor and Walker's Director of Accounting, will tell you that everything she learned about management, she learned at Starbucks. This might seem a joke until you discover that her first job after graduation from college was managing a Starbucks in Washington, DC near the White House.
How did someone who grew up in Boston and attended college in Florida, end up running a Starbucks in Washington? “I wanted something different, so my friend and I moved to DC. Neither of us had jobs. It was an adventure,” she says. Starbucks was just beginning to expand to the east coast and some of the things she learned there have stayed with her. “Integrity, training and the importance of customer service” are hallmarks that she says have left a lasting impression on her work life.
Her attraction to accounting boils down to “It’s black and white. As long as you balance at the end of the day, you’re good.” But life is not just numbers to her. She is active in the Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations and stays busy working with middle and high school youth at First Presbyterian Church on the ocean front in Virginia Beach.
She met her husband while they lived across the hall from each other in the same apartment building, and they now have two young daughters, Mary Price 2-½ and Eleanor, just over a year old. She has been baking “since I was about nine years old,” she says. Her family seems to enjoy her brownies the most, but cookies are a specialty, too. She is well known in the Norfolk office for her contributions of food to fundraisers held in conjunction with the annual Legal Food Frenzy.
Her enthusiam and excitement for life, along with her ability to see “the people behind the numbers,” are qualities that make her a valuable part of Taylor and Walker’s client service team.
