Tumbleweed Communications Names Craig Brennan President and CEO

Redwood City, CA -- Tumbleweed Communications Corp., a leading provider of email security, file transfer security, and identity validation software and appliances, today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously named Craig D. Brennan as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Brennan has also been elected to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Brennan succeeds Jeffrey C. Smith, who steps down as president, CEO and Chairman. Smith will remain on the board and serve as a special advisor to the new CEO.

"I'm very pleased that Craig Brennan has agreed to join Tumbleweed as its new CEO." said Deborah D. Rieman, a Tumbleweed Board Member. "We believe our market is entering a high-growth phase, so in our search we were looking for a leader with demonstrated success in building competitive, growth-oriented business organizations. Craig is that leader."

Brennan brings two decades of experience in the enterprise software arena to his new position. Most recently, Brennan served as president and CEO of Brio Software Inc., a $100+ million publicly traded enterprise software company. While at Brio, Brennan led a company-wide transformation. He returned the company to profitable growth, resulting in the best overall operating performance for the company. Prior to Brio, Brennan held leadership positions at Oracle Corporation, where he served as senior vice president of the Customer Relationship Management Group, and Deloitte Consulting, where he built and led the Siebel-CRM practice. Brennan earned an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a BA from the University of Michigan.

"Tumbleweed is the gold standard in the messaging security industry, consistently delivering powerful products for trusted business communication," said Brennan. "I am excited to be joining a company so rich in technology and industry leading products, and I look forward to working with this outstanding team to accelerate Tumbleweed's growth and long-term profitability."

In January this year, Smith, who co-founded Tumbleweed and has served as CEO since 1993, announced that he would step down as the company's president and chief executive when a successor was appointed. He will continue to serve on the Board of Directors, and will act as an advisor to the incoming CEO.

Christopher H. Greendale, a Tumbleweed Board Member, said, "The Board wants to thank Jeff Smith for his commitment, leadership and innovation as Tumbleweed's CEO for the past twelve years. His early vision of email as the strategic B2B platform for conducting business transactions was dead-on, and the resulting solutions provided by Tumbleweed have helped shape how organizations do business over the Internet."

"I'm thrilled to have someone of Craig's experience and ability to lead the company to the next phase," said Smith. "Since announcing my decision to step down as CEO, I've been committed to ensuring that we find a new CEO who has just the right combination of experience, acumen and leadership. With Craig's appointment, I'm confident that Tumbleweed is in very capable hands."