Critical Path Appoints Vice President of Government Sales

"At a time of heightened sensitivity surrounding secure communications, government organizations face stringent technical requirements for protecting their critical data and IT infrastructures, including digital identities," said Critical Path President Al Shipp. "Critical Path is uniquely positioned to meet the demands of government customers with its messaging and identity management solutions. Our solutions, combined with David's impressive track record building successful vertical practices, poise Critical Path for rapid growth in the government market."

Critical Path's identity management solutions provide the foundation for key government IT security needs such as PKI deployment, user provisioning, profile management, whitepages directories and password synchronization. Critical Path enables customers to consolidate and integrate user information that is scattered among disparate data sources into a centralized directory server, an important requirement for government agencies seeking an effective, secure way to manage identities and security credentials. Furthermore, the company's software makes it possible for organizations to cut helpdesk costs by automating many of the expensive, manual processes associated with setting up, maintaining and revoking access to the breadth of applications and information systems required by government employees, contractors and citizens.

Critical Path also offers highly scalable messaging solutions that enable geographically distributed organizations to provide access to email, address books, calendars, file sharing, instant messaging and dynamic alerts via wireless, Web, voice and desktop devices. Available both as licensed software and as a hosted service, the company's messaging solutions are used by telecommunications carriers, government agencies and enterprises throughout the world to provide reliable digital communications to millions of users at a fraction of the cost of ownership of traditional groupware.

McGuinness most recently served as senior vice president at Dimension Data, a global technology services company, where he built high-growth, profitable integration services practices that spanned several industry verticals. Prior to this, McGuinness held several senior executive positions at Proxicom, Inc., which was acquired by Dimension Data. McGuinness also spent five years at Chevron Chemical Company where he significantly grew revenue in his territory.

"Critical Path addresses an enormous opportunity in the federal market as those organizations rely on proven technology for information security," said McGuinness. "My experience building and growing business in enterprise markets combined with Critical Path's trusted solutions will help meet the unique needs of government customers and accelerate the company's growth in this important market."

Critical Path's solutions are used by more than 40 governments organizations around the globe, including U.S. Federal Bridge Certification Authority; U.S. Access Certificates for Electronic Services; and Digital Signature Trust, the first government-appointed Certificate Authority in the U.S.

About Critical Path, Inc.
Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH) is a global leader in digital communications software and services. The company provides messaging solutions — from wireless, secure and unified messaging to basic email and personal information management — as well as identity management solutions that simplify user profile management and strengthen information security. The standards-based Critical Path Communications Platform, built to perform reliably at the scale of public networks, delivers the industry's lowest total cost of ownership for messaging solutions and lays a solid foundation for next-generation communications services. Solutions are available on a hosted or licensed basis. Critical Path's customers include more than 700 enterprises, 190 carriers and service providers, eight national postal authorities and 35 government agencies. Critical Path is headquartered in San Francisco. More information can be found at www.criticalpath.net.

Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements by the Company and its executives regarding endorsements of our product and service offerings by our customers and partners, the performance, security, scalability and interoperability of our product and service offerings, the ability of our customers to achieve cost savings in the provision of services, industry trends, market and customer requirements and the ability of our products and services to meet the business needs of our customers, and the market for products and services like ours. The words and expressions "look forward to," "will," "expect," "plan," "believe," "seek," "strive for," "anticipate," hope," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify the Company's forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, our evolving business strategy and the emerging and changing nature of the market for our products and services, our ability to deliver on our sales objectives, the ability of our technology and our competitors' technologies to address customer demands, changes in economic and market conditions, unplanned system interruptions and capacity constraints, software and service design defects. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) made from time to time, including Critical Path's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, and the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 30, June 30 and September 30, 2002, all as may be amended from time to time.

Note to Editors: Critical Path and the Critical Path logo are the trademarks of Critical Path, Inc.

Contact Information:

For Reporters:
Critical Path, Inc.
Marcie Powers
415.541.2662
marcie.powers@criticalpath.net   For Financial Analysts:
Critical Path, Inc.
Mike Bishop
415.541.2619
mike.bishop@criticalpath.net  

Ernst van der Ploeg
Regional Sales Director
for Critical Path  etherlands

+31 (0) 6 512 77060 phone
+31 (0) 6 105 48013 fax

A Global Leader in Digital Communications Software and Services