Staff

Michael Connor, Executive Director

Michael helped launch Open MIC following a distinguished career as a media executive, entrepreneur and journalist. He has served as a consultant for more than a decade in the field of corporate responsibility and is the owner and Editor of Business Ethics magazine, an online publication.

Michael is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Correspondent and Senior Producer for ABC News. His television work has received numerous honors, including two national Emmys, a Columbia-duPont Award, a Writers Guild Award and a nomination for an Academy Award. He also held executive positions at Dow Jones & Co., where he led global development of the company’s TV and multimedia operations, served as CEO of a London-based pan-European business news channel and was Executive Producer of The Wall Street Journal Report, a weekly syndicated program.

Michael currently serves on the board of the Center for an Urban Future, a NYC-based think tank dedicated to highlighting the critical opportunities and challenges facing New York and other cities. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross.

Audrey Mocle, Deputy Director

Audrey Mocle is an attorney with a wealth of experience in human rights and corporate responsibility. She has advised leading global businesses, international organizations, and civil society groups on all aspects of human rights governance. Prior to joining Open MIC, Audrey served as the human rights lead for Royal Bank of Canada’s Sustainability and Enterprise ESG Group. Audrey holds degrees in management and law from McGill University and a Master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research on business and human rights has been cited by the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Outside of work, Audrey sits on the Board of Directors of Relay Education, a non-profit that prepares youth for careers in the low-carbon economy.

Jessica Dheere, Advocacy Director

Jessica Dheere has a multifaceted background in the global digital rights movement, and she leverages her experience to hold government and corporate power accountable for human rights. Previously, she was director of Ranking Digital Rights, known for the Big Tech and Telco Giants scorecards. She is also founder and former executive director at SMEX, a Beirut-based, pan-Arab organization that advances digital rights in the West Asia/North Africa region. In 2018-19, she was a research fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she launched the CYRILLA Collaborative, a global initiative to map, analyze, and visualize the emergence and evolution of national legal frameworks for digital rights. She graduated from Princeton University and has an M.A. in media studies from the New School in New York City. In 2014, she was one of Middlebury Language School’s Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace.