TWPG Thomas Weisel Prtns Grp (MM)

Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWPG) (TSX: TWP), a growth sector focused investment bank, announced that Seth Ferguson joined the firm as Managing Director and Co-Head of Mergers & Acquisitions, Christopher Poggi joined as Managing Director for Investment Banking focused on Software and Douglas Leo joined as Head of Commission Management for Brokerage. Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Poggi will be based in Thomas Weisel Partners' San Francisco office and Mr. Leo in the New York office.

"We are delighted to have Seth Ferguson and Chris Poggi join the team to assist us in building out our advisory and software businesses, franchises where we expect to see strong growth opportunities in the future," said Bill McLeod, Co-Head of Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners. "Turmoil in the capital markets and the resulting disruption among bulge bracket firms has created the opportunity for us to add high caliber talent to our team. We plan to continue to hire opportunistically in the coming months."

Mr. Ferguson brings over 20 years of industry experience and was previously a Managing Director and Global Head of Technology M&A at UBS in San Francisco responsible for building and managing the Technology M&A practice. Prior to UBS, he was Co-Head of M&A at Robertson Stephens. Mr. Poggi brings 15 years of experience and was most recently an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan ("JPM") where he was responsible for the software sector in the firm's Technology Investment Banking Group. Prior to the eight years he spent at JPM, Mr. Poggi worked at Salomon Smith Barney and AG Edwards.

"These strategic hires bring extensive experience to our investment banking platform. Building on our Mergers & Acquisitions franchise, Seth Ferguson strengthens our West Coast presence with his deep transaction expertise. Chris Poggi's client relationships, sectoral knowledge and broad transactional expertise complement our established software team and broaden the West Coast effort," added Brad Raymond, Co-Head of Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners.

On our brokerage platform, we are pleased to announce that Doug Leo has joined as head of Commission Management. Mr. Leo will work closely with all groups on the brokerage platform to monetize our research, client relationships and execution abilities. Mr. Leo, who was most recently with Lehman Brothers, brings 13 years of experience in commission management to our firm.

"With commission management agreements being used by an increasing number of our customers, it's important for TWP to have a client friendly strategy that allows us to compete with both larger firms and focus firms," said Tony Stais, Head of Trading at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "optimistic," "potential," "future" or "continue," the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future events. There are important factors that could cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or other events or circumstances to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, Thomas Weisel Partners' ability to implement its strategic initiatives and achieve the expected benefits of the acquisition of Westwind Partners, integrate Westwind Partners' operations and retain its professionals, as well as competitive, economic, political, and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, other risks relating to the acquisition, including the effect of the completion of the transaction on the companies' business relationships, operating results and business generally and other factors. Some of the other factors are those that are discussed in Item 1A - "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC thereafter. We do not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any forward-looking statement and you should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We are under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements to conform them to actual results or revised expectations.

About Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc.

Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. is an investment bank, founded in 1998, focused principally on the growth sectors of the economy. Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. generates revenues from three principal sources: investment banking, brokerage and asset management. The investment banking group is comprised of two disciplines: corporate finance and strategic advisory. The brokerage group provides equity and convertible debt securities sales and trading services to institutional investors, and offers brokerage, advisory and cash management services to high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients. The asset management group consists of: private equity, public equity and distribution management. Thomas Weisel Partners is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Baltimore, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, New York, Portland, Silicon Valley, Toronto, London, Mumbai and Zurich. For more information, please visit www.tweisel.com.