Meet Our Team
Just like the ingredients in any good spice blend create a unique flavor profile, our team at Casa M Spice Co. is made out of a set of diverse personalities and talents which balance each other out and combine to form something fantastic. Our team is always growing, and we’ll be adding new members here as we build the squad.
We’re just as enthusiastic about customer service as we are about food, so feel free to reach out to us with comments or questions at any time. We’re always looking for feedback! We are committed to our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. If you want to get in touch please use Contact Us, and we encourage you to connect with us on social media. We love talking to our fans about food and are committed to 100% customer satisfaction.
The Casa M Spice Co. Team:
Mike is a devoted husband and a serial entrepreneur who has started and run businesses continually since he was a teenager. He co-founded his last company (a healthcare cyber-security and compliance company) in January 2004 and sold it in January 2017. From the time he graduated high school, Mike knew he enjoyed chemistry and physics, he just didn’t know for sure whether he wanted to do them in a lab setting after going to graduate school or in the kitchen after going to culinary school to be a chef.
Ultimately he decided that blowing things up in a laser-lab was more fun, so graduate school won out. He received his formal training in Chemical Physics at Tulane University in New Orleans where he earned a Ph.D., but never lost his passion for chemistry in the kitchen, which is how Casa M Spice Company ultimately came to be. Along the way, he's shared his love for his extracurricular activities with others by becoming an FAA licensed master parachute rigger, a skydiving instructor, an NAUI SCUBA instructor, and an avid photographer both on the land and under the sea. He's a self-proclaimed amateur celebrity chef, a bonafide BBQ guru, a certifiable chile fiend, a nice (enough) guy, and a lollygagger extraordinaire!
Mike Hernandez, PhD — Chief Spice Officer
Manny was born and raised in southern Arizona but now calls Dallas Fort Worth home. Although his professional pedigree shows 25 years of mortgage credit, he has always been a consummate foodie and is passionate about experiencing all different types of cuisine. An avid world traveler, Manny has run with the bulls in Pamplona, been SCUBA diving with hammerhead sharks at Cocos Island, explored Morocco’s culture and cuisines, floated through central and eastern Europe along the Danube, journeyed through India to visit the Taj Mahal, and experienced the the wonders of the Mayan culture including a visit to Chichen Itza.
When Manny is not working on searching for new flavors to add to the Casa M Spice product line, you can more than likely find him blowing bubbles while SCUBA diving in front of their home in Cozumel.
Manny Hernandez — Chief Operations Ninja
Jennifer is a seasoned accounting guru with over 25 years of experience in the IT, Real Estate and Broadcast Communications Industries. She is excited to venture into the Specialty Food Market helping to orchestrate the behind the scenes transactions at Casa M Spice. As a detail-oriented forward thinker with a passion for crunching numbers and potato chips, she makes sure our team is informed, on track and poised for success. She and Dr. Mike have worked together since 2005.
Originally from St. Louis, she made the brave and best decision to move to Austin to attend the University of Texas. She earned her Accounting Degree, became a CPA and set out to prove that accountants can have a personality! When not counting beans, or spice blends in this case, she can be seen with her better half and 2 lazy-but-lovable teens boating on the lake, listening to live music, attending Longhorn games, and supporting the Arts.
Jennifer R. Mills, CPA — Chief Money Maestro
Dane is a young, hungry, and motivated individual with a huge appetite for success! Originally from southern Arizona, now in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2016, he is here to stay. He's a former collegiate athlete with a degree in Business Operations & Project Management and is responsible for making sure you receive your orders safely and on time. Dane takes tremendous pride in his work, is always thinking about better ways of doing things, and truly believes that there's no detail too small when it comes to customer satisfaction, which adds to our already amazing team here at Casa M Spice!
When Dane is not at work Spice Wrangling our loyal customer’s orders, you can find him catching a sports game or event, at the gym, or traveling with his friends to visit and learn about a new city!
Dane Rodriguez — Spice Wrangler
Joaquín made his world debut at the FC Dallas "Y'all Means All" Match 18-Jun-22 to a major league welcome, delighting crowds and offering photo opportunities with the fans. Now he can be found at most of our events (FC Dallas Matches, trade shows, and retail sampling events). He does maintain his own Social Media accounts so feel free to like and follow accordingly!
Joaquín Pequín — Chile Mascot
Ms. Cassiopaea Hernandez, being a world-class carnivore, has extensive experience with various proteins and flavor profiles that go together to make well-rounded meals. She has significant expertise with chicken, beef, lamb, and various types of liver (a particular favorite). Her days are full of monumental tasks such as calculating which window provides the optimal amount of sunlight at any given moment during the day, snoozing on various BTU-yielding electronics (laptops and monitors are a favorite), sprinting at the speed of light from room-to-room for no apparent reason, and giving very vocal feedback on the way she prefers to have her belly rubbed while she's "roll-stretching". When she’s not working from home in the DFW metro area, she can be found bossing the dog around at her house in Tucson, or sending her humans into a panic as she peers down on the mere mortals below from the 6th floor balcony of her condos down in Cozumel.