You really couldn’t miss her. For us in Cambridge, news of her arrival from Atlanta always caused a bit of a buzz. People were talking about it days in advance. And you always knew when she was in the office. You could feel the energy. It’s a boisterous and friendly energy. Then there’s that auburn-red hair.

Michelle Goguen was with Lotus as a Lotus employee for three years, but began her affiliation two years earlier. PR is her claim to fame. In 1991, she had been working at Alexander Communications in the Atlanta area and was assigned to the then newly acquired Lotus Word Processing Division, ex-Samna. Lotus WPD PR was her exclusive account at Alexander, but two years later, in 1993, she found herself under Lotus employ managing PR for WPD.

As Lotus built more focus around it’s SmartSuite offering, Michelle became PR manager for the Suite, then soon after that it was on to managing PR for the entire desktop products division. Corporate life was going just fine for Michelle. Moving up, getting recognized for her hard work and commitment, good personal and professional connections, working for a company she enjoyed. What else was there? There was something else, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. She had made a full commitment to her professional life and enjoyed the unique environment offered by Lotus, but she felt it was time to take a break and explore this feeling that something was missing. She soon discovered it was a question of discovering a different balance among her work and all her other interests.

She had inspired three of her friends to take some personal time off. Now she began to feel that she should be following her own good advice. In mid-transfer from Atlanta to Cambridge in the fall of 1995 she told Rich Eckel that she was leaving Lotus. Rich was a bit surprised to say the least. Within a few months Michelle sold her house and all but the essentials, loaded what was left into a UHaul and headed west to Bend, Oregon with Jeff Hurley, a civil engineer she met at the infamous (in a good way) Sevens bar on Charles Street in Boston. Taking a year off was the plan, but she got itchy after five or six months and told herself she’d take the next good opportunity that found her in the spectacular Oregon wilderness.

Networks at work. The first opportunity presented itself in the forms of ex-Lotus PR colleagues Paul Santinelli and Allison Parker. They enlisted her as PR consultant for Narrative Communications. Still loving the freedom, she began by committing 40 hours of consulting time a month. What to do with all that free time wasn’t hard to figure out. Things were beginning to balance. One thing is clear enough about Michelle very soon after you get to know her. She loves to play. She loves to be active. Already and aerobics instructor and weightlifter, being in the west her repertoire of outdoors activities became even more complete with hiking, motorcycle riding, mountain biking, snowboarding—and WINDSURFING! A sport that has changed her life. It’s such a part of her life that she’s updated of the wind conditions on the nearby Hood River via her pager. The all-too-corporate SAAB convertible? Well, it’s has to go to make way for the Ford Econoline truck that will haul their windsurfing gear, and their dog, Timber, with them just about everywhere they go.