the keyboard queen of the playboy cyber club lives in the cubicle next door
If playmates are the girls next door, Heidi Davies is the girl you want next door to you at the office. As Playboy's online Playmate Coordinator, Heidi unites Centerfolds and Playboy Cyber Club members for live online conversations (or chats, as they're called in cyberspace). "Chats allow people to talk casually with the women they've seen in the magazine," says Heidi. As Rowan (her cyberspace alter ego), Heidi has developed a following of her own. "The Playboy Cyber Club regulars call me Rowan, the cybergoddess," she says with a giggle. "They voted me Favorite Playboy Woman in an online poll. How cool is that?" Pretty cool, considering Favorite Playboy Man was Hugh Hefner. Gaining the respect of her cyberpeers has been a breeze for this Chicago girl, who blew into the Windy City in 1984 after spending her childhood in Florida, Arizona and Michigan. "I used to be so quiet," explains the woman who now thrives on good conversation. "All I did was read." In seventh grade, when Heidi had to choose between a typing class and a computer class, she took the latter. "I was the only girl," she says, "but I thought it was cool that you could program computers to do stuff." In high school, she overcame her shyness. "I was on the gymnastics team and had to compete in a leotard. That took balls." Cut to 1995, when Heidi joined Playboy as an administrative assistant to the vice president of New Media. "I learned all about computers--e-mail, the Internet, everything." When the Playboy Cyber Club started its daily chats in May 1997, Heidi volunteered to help. She developed a special rapport with the Playmates and became a company standout. "I talk with the Playmates more than anyone. I help with computer problems, personal problems, whatever." The guidance goes both ways. Before she posed, Heidi asked for words of wisdom from her Playmate pals. "They said I would feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. And you know what? I did."
