TWPG Thomas Weisel Prtns Grp (MM)

Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWPG), a global growth-focused investment bank, announced that Mark Dempster joined the firm as a Managing Director in Investment Banking focused on Healthcare, Steven Satov joined the firm as a Managing Director in Institutional Sales and Kevin Tscherne joined the firm as a Director in Trading focused on Healthcare. Mr. Dempster and Mr. Tscherne will be based in Thomas Weisel Partners' New York office and Mr. Satov in the firm's Toronto office.

"We are pleased to have these three high caliber professionals join our brokerage and investment banking divisions. These additions strengthen our commitment to expand our Healthcare team as well as our institutional distribution capabilities in the Canadian market," said Lionel F. Conacher, President and COO of Thomas Weisel Partners. "The continued financial turmoil and dislocation among the bulge bracket firms has created hiring opportunities for us to selectively add senior talent to our firm."

As the firm continues to build its Healthcare investment banking practice, Mark Dempster, who has over 15 years of experience in both investment banking and consulting, will focus on the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical sub-sectors. Mr. Dempster was most recently with Banc of America Securities in Healthcare Investment Banking for the past five years. Prior to Banc of America Securities, Mr. Dempster was a Vice President in the Mergers & Acquisition group at JP Morgan Securities.

Steven Satov brings over 14 years of industry experience to the firm and was most recently a Director of Institutional Equity Sales at Merrill Lynch Canada, where he was responsible for selling U.S. research into dedicated pools of U.S. capital in Canada, as well as Canadian research into Montreal. Prior to Merrill Lynch Canada, Mr. Satov was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs.

Kevin Tscherne brings 17 years of experience to the firm's platform and was most recently Head of Healthcare Sector Trading at Citigroup. Prior to Citigroup, Mr. Tscherne contributed to building Bank of America's Healthcare trading platform and JP Morgan Securities sector trading effort.

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 and Zurich. For more information, please visit www.tweisel.com.