TWPG Thomas Weisel Prtns Grp (MM)

Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWPG), a global growth-focused investment bank, today announced that Matthew Allard has joined the firm as a Managing Director in Investment Banking focused on financial sponsors, Hank Lammens has joined the firm as a Managing Director in Trading and Kevin Travis has joined the firm as a Director in Trading focused on the middle markets.

"We believe that a dedicated financial sponsor effort is a natural extension of our deep coverage of the consumer, energy, healthcare, mining and technology sectors. Matt's efforts in further developing relationships with venture and private equity firms will help drive our investment banking results," said Bill McLeod, Co-Head of Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Mr. Allard brings over 10 years of industry experience to his role, most recently with Banc of America Securities where he spent four years as a Managing Director covering financial sponsors. Mr. Allard is based in the New York office.

"We are excited to announce Hank's addition to our New York trading team as he brings established institutional relationships to our platform. Kevin's focus on growing our middle markets business with our existing team is an integral part of our brokerage strategy and one that we expect to increase over time," stated Tony Stais, Head of Trading at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Mr. Lammens has over 12 years of experience and joined the firm most recently from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Prior to the merger, Mr. Lammens spent seven years as an institutional trader with Merrill Lynch. Based in the New York office, Mr. Lammens is responsible for covering accounts primarily in Texas and the Northeast.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Travis spent the last six years as a Sales Trader, most recently with Soleil Securities. He will focus his efforts on expanding the firm's middle market account coverage in the U.S., as well as in Europe. Mr. Travis is based in the San Francisco office.

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 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, Denver, New York, Portland, Toronto, London and Zurich. For more information, please visit www.tweisel.com.

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, the state of the financial markets and the economy, particularly as they relate to the growth sectors that the firm is focused on, Thomas Weisel Partners' ability to implement its strategic initiatives and achieve the expected benefits of the acquisition of Westwind Partners, retain its professionals, as well as other competitive, economic, political, and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, risks relating to the acquisition of Westwind Partners, 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, 2008 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.