CLASS NOTABLE
crossing genreS
CLASS NOTABLE
wIred for Change
o you want to leave a positive mark. BRETT
S CROSBY did too. As a USC College under-
graduate in the ’90s, watershed events lo-
cally and nationally got him fired up.
The Los Angeles riots in the aftermath of the
Rodney King beating and verdict. The deadly
standoff between federal agents and Branch Da-
vidians in Waco, Texas. The Oklahoma City Federal
Building bombing that killed thousands.
At the same time, a little thing called the World
Wide Web had launched for home use.
Majoring in international relations and political
science, when Crosby graduated in 1995,
he came out swinging. But he didn’t
know exactly how to follow through.
“I thought,
“With those majors you can’t help in order
but think how can I change the world
and make it a better place,” Crosby to drive
said. “People were camped out in front
of the White House with their picket change,
signs and it wasn’t having an impact. I
thought, in order to drive change, I
I would
B. CROSBY PHOTO BY ALDEN DESOTO; E. GARCIA PHOTO COURTESY OF E. GARCIA
would have to build change.” have to
Rather than executing policy through
state and federal departments, he fig- build
ured why not execute his own policy
change.
through the business world. He, his
brother and a couple buddies (includ-
ing fellow Trojan, Jack Ancone, urban planning,
’95) founded Urchin Software Corporation based in
San Diego, which built and hosted Web sites for
businesses. Growing rapidly, the company began
focusing on the Urchin software, which had be-
come popular for its speed and efficiency at pro-
cessing large Web server log files.
The company dropped the hosting and honed in
on Web analytics, a tool that measures, collects and
analyzes Internet data for businesses. The informa-
tion helps businesses optimize their Web usage for
Brett Crosby ’95
marketing, advertising and other endeavors. Urchin
began securing large contracts and in 2005, the
company was purchased by Google and Urchin
became Google Analytics.
After many months of negotiations, the deal
went through on the day of Crosby’s wedding.
“I was in my tux, literally just about to walk
down the aisle when I signed the contract,” he
recalled. “It made for a pretty good reception.”
Now a group manager for Google Analytics, a
free service for Web sites of any size, Crosby is still
as idealistic as he was at USC, maybe more so.
“Now I see different ways to change
the world,” he said. “I have the opportu-
nity to help with economic change and
social change by bringing more freedom
to areas where people never had access
to this kind of information before.”
As an undergrad, the Web was in its
embryonic stages. He envisioned himself
a policymaker then, but believes on the
Web he’s making a bigger impact than
he thought possible. He credits Steve
Lamy, professor of international rela-
tions, for teaching him to think critically.
“Sometimes I ask myself, ‘What does
” my degree have to do with my day
job?’ ” Crosby said. “Seemingly very lit-
tle on the surface. But I am living out the ideals that
I had then in a company filled with people who are
actively working to make the world a better place.
“In international relations, we read case studies
that changed our world view and taught us how to
think critically. We learned how to think about cre-
ative solutions to social, political and economic
problems. And that is extremely powerful. I fre-
quently think about the lessons I learned then
when working on problems I’m solving today.”
—PAMELA J. JOHNSON
ERIC GARCIA ’95 has written about
dinosaurs disguised as humans and
con men with severe psychological
issues. he’s also envisioned a fu-
ture where artificial organs are re-
possessed when patients can no
longer afford them.
earlier this year, his novel, The
Repossession Mambo (harper, 2009),
was transformed into the feature
film Repo Men starring Jude Law
and Forest whitaker. garcia co-
wrote the screenplay with garrett
Lerner, a writer and executive pro-
ducer for the medical drama House.
In the film, remy (Law) seizes
high-tech artificial organs if trans-
plant recipients fail to make their
payments. everything is great for
remy until he’s implanted with an
artificial heart following an acci-
dent. when he can’t pay for it,
remy becomes a target of the or-
ganization he previously served.
garcia’s novel is based on his
short story, “The Tell-Tale Pan-
creas,” which he wrote after earn-
ing his B.a. in english with an
emphasis in creative writing from
USC College.
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