Team

Kieren joins More in Common from the New York-based La Convivencia, where he is Founder. Kieren specializes in addressing online harms, having tackled this for a decade in academic, governmental, and private sector roles. Kieren holds a BA in Abrahamic religions, and a MA in digital sociology from King’s College London where he researched digital platforms, democratic expression, and Islamic State online recruitment.

Conleth has been a bridge-building community organizer in his rural Northern Ireland hometown since he was a teenager, an experience that shaped his determination to help unite divided societies. After graduating in Law from the University of Oxford, he worked in Rome building global peace, active citizenship and politics for unity campaigns for the United World Project. He is based in Northern Ireland.

Julia joins More in Common with over half a decade experience advancing programs and policies to protect and assist migrants and refugees in the United States and internationally. Selected as a Rotary Peace Fellow, she completed an MA in Peace, Conflict and Development at the University of Bradford and has a BA in Sociology, Anthropology and Religion from St. Olaf College. Previously, Julia led peace and leadership development programming for youth in Nepal as a Fulbright Scholar. Julia currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Marion graduated in history and political sciences from Sorbonne University in Paris. She holds a Master's in International cooperation and humanitarian action. Before joining More in Common, Marion worked at Oxfam France, a global NGO specialized in fighting poverty and inequality, as the communication and digital manager.  She lives in Paris.

Naureen began her career at Google in business development and strategic partnerships before joining the New Cities Foundation as its Director of Research. At More in Common, Naureen is driving the organization's efforts to become a world-class learning organization. She is also in charge of More in Common's team development and culture.

Tim Dixon is a social entrepreneur who has started businesses and nonprofits in the US, the UK and Australia, where he was born. He trained as an economist, worked as a tech sector lawyer for law firm Baker & McKenzie from 1999 to 2004 and built a leading educational publishing business that was acquired by Pearson Australia in 2004. From 2004 to 2010 he worked in senior political roles, including as economic adviser and chief speechwriter for two Prime Ministers. He has lived and worked between New York and London for the past decade, co-founding social change agency Purpose Europe in 2013 and helping to start social movement organizations around the issue of modern day slavery, the Syrian crisis, the Colombian peace process, economic inequality, gun control and civic participation. Tim serves on the boards of organizations in the US, UK and Australia.

Mary Bennett holds a bachelor's in Peace, War, and Defense from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a researcher, she has been published in works related to white supremacist extremism and violent misogyny, and as an operations analyst, she has led business development initiatives for security firms in the private sector. Mary Bennett currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fred is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Toronto, specializing in emotions and social behavior. Fred holds a masters degree in psychology from New York University and a PhD in social psychology from Northeastern University. His research centers on how people think about empathy and the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of political conversations.

Jérémie is a political researcher with expertise in conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys for political parties, foundations, and trade unions in Germany. Having worked for the Bertelsmann Foundation, he most recently was head of political analysis at Policy Matters, a polling firm based in Berlin. Jérémie has specialized in issues of political participation, voter disaffection and right-wing populism. He studied political science at the Free University of Berlin and European Affairs at Sciences Po Paris.

A multidisciplinary researcher, Míriam has conducted field studies in West Africa and worked for UNHCR in Ghana and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia. She is a qualified lawyer in Spain, where she worked in public law for the firm Baker & McKenzie and obtained a Master’s Degree in international relations from Yale University.

Rubeena comes to More in Common from sharedserviceslink, a small events company, from which she brings 5 years of operations experience working in a startup environment. She has also travelled extensively in North America.

Since 2016, Stephen has led More in Common’s studies on polarization and division in the United States and across Europe. Stephen has a background in measuring and advising on public opinion for political candidates, Fortune 100 companies such as Microsoft and Ford, and public sector organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UNHCR. He received his Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is curious about how beliefs and ideology shape people’s experience of the world.

Falco studied political science and economics in Heidelberg, Istanbul and Darmstadt. He gained practical experience in political foundations, a strategy consultancy and in the German Bundestag. At the German federal election campaign 2017 he was employed as an event manager at the social democrats. Prior to his studies, he completed an apprenticeship as a Computer Science Expert.

Arisa joined More in Common having recently completed a Master’s Degree in Transnational Studies at UCL, with her dissertation focusing on the relationship between right-wing populism and gender in the UK and France. She has been assisting More in Common’s research studies in the US and Europe. 

Laura joined More in Common from the Berlin-based think tank Das Progressive Zentrum where she headed the Future of Democracy program and built up the Democracy Lab for democratic innovations. Laura holds a Master’s Degree from the Free University of Berlin and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Washington. She published on institutional reform, digital democracy, and women in politics. Laura has twice been named one of “40 under 40” in Germany and took part in the 2018 negotiations to form the German coalition government.

Jazmin is an attorney with experience working with private, nonprofit, government, and multilateral organizations on humanitarian, civil rights, and human rights issues. She began her career with the U.S. Department of State managing grant programs and advancing policy to protect and assist refugees in countries across Africa. Most recently, Jazmin worked for International Justice Mission, where she led the development of grant proposals for criminal justice reform projects combating human rights abuses around the world.

Anna joined More in Common after working for the digital policy think tank D64. She studied Psychology, Communications and Political Sciences in Freiburg and Berlin and has gained a diverse range of work experience in journalism and public relations, including working for the German Public Broadcaster ARD. She is passionate about all subjects regarding social equality and political participation. 

Prior to helping launch More in Common, Mathieu was a co-founder of Make.org, one of the largest new civic tech companies in Europe and for several years was the Executive Director of New Cities, a think tank he helped launch on the future of global cities. Mathieu served as a Political Officer in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations for five years based in Southern Afghanistan, Lebanon and at the UN Security Council in New York. He also worked in the area of governance at the World Bank and has advised a number of political campaigns in France and the US. Mathieu is a graduate of the Kennedy School at Harvard and of the LSE. He is a dual US-French citizen and lives in Paris with his family.

Natalie is a professional executive assistant with considerable experience gained over the past 10 years. Having worked in both the public and private sectors, she brings with her a wealth of experience, understanding, and organisational magic. Natalie supports our CEO and Co-Founder Mathieu, our Co-Founder Tim, and our UK Director Luke.

Laurence previously worked at the Fondation de France, France’s largest philanthropic foundation, leading their work in research and international cooperation. In  particular she conducted annual national surveys on isolation and loneliness in France. She has also worked at the French Center for National Monuments, and before that at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York. Laurence is a graduate of Sciences Po, Ecole Normale Supérieure and Princeton.  

Paul holds a masters in government from the University of Texas at Austin. He has previously worked in political polling on local, statewide and presidential campaigns, focusing primarily on the Southern United States. Paul lives in Austin, Texas.

Mutaf leads Future CFO, a London based finance company which specializes in supporting INGO’s & start-ups. Mutaf holds qualifications from Association of certified chartered accountants (ACCA) and Institutes of Chartered Accountant in England and Wales (ICAEW) and has over 9 years senior level finance experience in the not-for-profit sector. Previously he was Head of Finance at Girl Effect, an initiative set up by the Nike Foundation to support programs in over 60 countries. Prior to that he was at Restless Development, a youth-led development agency focusing on social change. Mutaf also holds an MBA degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Before joining More In Common, Calista worked as a social psychology research assistant at Columbia University, helping to develop and implement studies on emotion and stress. She holds a B.A. in Humanities from Yale University and a post-baccalaureate degree in Psychology from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Tyron studied History and Politics at the University of Oxford, and then did his Master’s in Atlantic History and Politics at the University of Missouri in the United States – focusing chiefly on early 20th century history, and modern British politics. Together with his studies, he has also held various roles within the Esperanto movement. After graduating in 2021, he joined the More in Common U.K. team.

Anna brings many years of social business and crowdfunding experience to More in Common. As Head of Communications and COO, she has helped build the crowdfunding platform Startnext since 2010 and advised hundreds of founders, projects and campaigns. She is co-founder of Studio Für Morgen and has a background in communication and media studies as well as journalism. 

Adam joined More in Common from the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relation where he remains an Associate Fellow. He is also a co-founder and co-chair of the independent foreign policy think tank Global.Lab in his hometown Warsaw, Poland. Adam studied international relations and political science in Warsaw, Bonn, and Berlin. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Chemnitz where he studies the links between democracy and transitional justice. In 2019, he stood as candidate for the European Parliament.

Luke joined More in Common from policy and research agency Public First, where he had a particular focus on public opinion research in the Midlands and North of England. Prior to that he was Director of the New Schools Network, a charity that campaigned for and supported the opening of new schools across the country. He has also been Director of Strategy at Ofsted, and Special Adviser to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, where he acted as chief spokesperson. He was also Head of Education at the charity Stonewall, leading their ground-breaking campaign to tackle homophobic bullying in schools.

Prior to joining More in Common, Dan worked on education policy and innovation at the state and national level. Previously, Dan served six years active duty as an Army infantry officer, with one tour in Afghanistan. Dan graduated from West Point and earned an MA in Contemporary China from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on a Fulbright Scholarship and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Dan lives in New York City. 

Sarah joined More in Common after working with the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for European Policy Studies on a civil society capacity-building project in the Western Balkans. Previously, Sarah worked as Project Coordinator at the Political Platform of the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance and at the German Federal Foreign Office. There she was as Program Officer responsible for the Diplomatenkolleg, a private-public partnership project aiming to provide foreign diplomats with insights into German culture, history and society. Sarah holds an MA in sociology, political science, and media sciences from the University of Trier and studied in Prague.

Jordan is a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Her research examines how morality and emotions affect what we see, how we think, and what we do. She is also currently a student affiliate at the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding and junior scholar at the Stone Center for Inequality. 

Dr Yudkin is a postdoctoral researcher in social decision-making at Yale University, investigating how transformative experiences change people's values and behaviors. He obtained his PhD from New York University and was a Fellow at Harvard University. His research centers on how people assess and influence their surroundings, including how group membership influences moral judgement.