Tumbleweed Announces Sam Maccherola as Vice President of Public Sector Sales

REDWOOD CITY, CA - May 11, 2001 - Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD), a leading provider of mission critical messaging software, today announced the addition of Sam Maccherola to its North American sales team as Vice President of Public Sector Sales.

"We're pleased that Sam will be leading our public sector sales team in the U.S.," said Don Gammon, Senior Vice President of North American Sales for Tumbleweed Communications Corp. "His leadership, reputation and experience, combined with our existing presence in many federal and state accounts, will help us continue to extend our reach to new opportunities within the government sector."

Prior to joining Tumbleweed, Maccherola was head of Entrust Technologies' U.S. Federal Markets Division. Maccherola brings to Tumbleweed more than 17 years experience in government sales, business development, sales management and strategic program development within the information technology and systems integration industry. Prior to Entrust, Maccherola held senior positions within the federal systems divisions of PLATINUM Technologies, Inc. and Legent Corporation. Maccherola will be based in Tumbleweed's Washington DC office.

"Tumbleweed solutions are vital to government agencies as they proactively seek to reduce administrative and paper costs and securely communicate with constituents and vendors over the Internet," said Sam Maccherola, Vice President of Public Sector Sales, Tumbleweed Communications Corp. "I am delighted to join an organization of Tumbleweed's caliber and look forward to working with the entire Tumbleweed team."

In addition, Maccherola is an active member in many industry associations such as Federal PKI Steering Committee's Technical Working Group and the Industry Advisory Council Federal CIO Liaison committee.

About Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed Communications (NASDAQ: TMWD) is a leading provider of mission critical messaging software that enables organizations to manage and secure online business communications and processes. Tumbleweed's customers use the company's solutions to define secure communication networks, to centrally control and monitor the corporate communications stream and to create a foundation for automated preparation and secure Internet delivery of sensitive business information. Companies that rely on Tumbleweed Communications solutions include American Express, Chase Manhattan Bank, Chevron, Datek Online, the European Union's Joint Research Council, FDA, John Deere, Merrill Lynch, Nike, Northern Trust, NTT, Salomon Smith Barney, Travelers, United Parcel Service, and seven of the world's largest postal services. Tumbleweed Communications was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, CA.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the security features of Tumbleweed's products and the activities of any third party. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 30, 2001 and Form 10-Q filed November 13, 2001. Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release.