Hero of the Reefs

When USC Dornsife alumnus John Monterubio was six years old, his parents gave him a book about fish.

“There were pictures of all these different types of fish and I still remember how the barracuda always stood out to me because of its enormous teeth. It looked scary,” he said. “I definitely didn’t want to be in the water with the barracuda.”

Today, Monterubio, who earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from USC Dornsife in 2006, is general counsel and chief operations officer at ReefCam LLC. Based in Washington, D.C., the company provides viewers with real-time access to coral reefs in the British Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman Islands and United States Virgin Islands through webcams installed in the ocean.

“These beautiful coral reefs stand little to no chance of survival without increased intervention,” Monterubio said. “ReefCam gives these fragile reef ecosystems a voice through our media platform. Our mission is to educate and raise both awareness and money, so as we build our audience we hope more people will become aware of the damage and the risk to long-term survival faced by coral reefs. We hope that watching ReefCam will remind people of this and encourage them to get involved.”

Monterubio believes his education at USC Dornsife is an invaluable asset in his role.

“It really helped me build my analytical skills and technical skills,” he said.

“Neuroscience taught me the process of how your brain thinks, what happens when the synapses fire, what happens when signal transfers from one to another and how that translates to an action that’s occurring in your perceivable environment.

“Working at ReefCam, where I have also done some programming, has made me think very analytically about the technical aspects that make this program code work, from when it goes to the server to when it ends up onto the webpage,” Monterubio said. “So having that scientific background has been very helpful.”

A barracuda, which reminds Monterubio of the fabled fish from his childhood book.

ReefCam aims to create a new mindset toward funding environmental programs by donating a quarter of its profits to conservation, research and education.

“This works, whether people just watch ReefCam and an ad comes up during the feed or they subscribe to ReefCam so that part of that money will go back to help preserve these at-risk reefs for future generations,” Monterubio said.

But ReefCam is also about having fun.

“The idea is that we want to allow people to go scuba diving or snorkeling at any time of the day, no matter where they are,” Monterubio said. “So if you’re at the office and you need a little break, you can just go to the ReefCam site and go diving in the Cayman Islands, or if you’re going about your day you can have ReefCam playing on your television as a sort of virtual fish tank.”

Monterubio said he loves his job because he is able to combine his passion for business with a passion for the environment. “It’s wonderful to synthesize the two and be able to leverage the power of business to do good for the environment,” he said. “That’s one of the main things that first attracted me to working with ReefCam.”

After graduating from USC Dornsife, Monterubio spent three years as a new business director at Oddcast, a boutique interactive advertising and tech firm in New York City. There he generated more than $3 million in business and worked on online marketing campaigns for several large companies including Malibu Rum, Purina, Sonic and GameSpot.

Alumnus John Monterubio.

Then, while earning a JD/MBA cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C., he joined ReefCam when a former classmate from American University asked him to help provide legal counsel to the company, which started out as a project in business school. Since he was still a law student at the time, he coordinated ReefCam’s legal counseling with outside attorneys. Once he was admitted to the bar in July of 2014, Monterubio began providing legal counsel himself.

Monterubio credits USC with giving him the ability to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. “That exposed me to a lot of different ways of thinking. It also helped me come out of my shell in college and be able to approach people, which is an invaluable skill for an entrepreneur.”

Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Monterubio knew he wanted to go to college in a big city. “I still remember visiting USC in January and it was 90 degrees. The weather was wonderful and I felt the energy of the school and I got really excited. It felt like USC was the right fit for me and even though I got into several other schools and visited them, I didn’t feel the connection I did with USC.”

Monterubio started out at USC by studying engineering. He was also interested in computer science. Then he switched to business.

“I liked business, but eventually decided I wanted to major in science, so I switched my major to biology and eventually to neuroscience because I find the brain so amazingly fascinating — a biological computer,” Monterubio said.

“By my senior year, I was actually dreading graduation day because I didn’t want my experience at USC Dornsife to end.”

A string ray glides past the reef camera.

Of his plans for the future, Monterubio said, “Obviously, we’d love to see our audience continue to grow. We want to get ReefCam on not just your computer screen, but all digital screens. So we want it to be on your television and to be a part of visual signage, so you can watch it at the doctor’s office or in the lobby of your hotel. We’re working on developing apps for streaming to TV devices like Roku and Amazon Fire, and eventually, we’d like to be on Apple TV.”

ReefCam has already expanded its webcam options to include three that show live footage of wildlife in bird sanctuaries in Ithaca, New York, and Brazil, as well as an ISS PlanetCam that shows the view from a satellite orbiting 230 miles above the Earth.

And that barracuda that made such an impression on Monterubio as a child? Now an avid snorkeler and swimmer, the adult Monterubio chooses the fearsome ray-finned fish with its signature fang-like teeth as his out-and-out favorite ReefCam visitor.

“There’s a barracuda that often swims past the Grand Canyon ReefCam and hangs out there in the morning, around 6:30 or 7 a.m. I love seeing him. He reminds me of my childhood.”