BackWeb Technologies Appoints Portal Pioneer To Board

San Jose, Calif. – March 6, 2002 - BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), the leading provider of ProactivePortal™ technologies for the enterprise, today announced the election by its shareholders of Isabel Maxwell, president emeritus of Commtouch, Inc, to the Company's board of directors.

"Isabel joins our board as we are gaining encouraging momentum in positioning the company as a visible leader in the fast-growing enterprise portal market," said Eli Barkat, Chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "Her experience as a pioneer of the portal space, as well as her expertise in strategic market development and in growing global companies, creates a tremendous resource for our management team as it continuous to execute on its strategy of becoming a portal standard."

"I am impressed with the strength of the BackWeb management and their solid execution in creating a strong position in the fast-growing enterprise portal space," said Ms. Maxwell. "I am delighted about this opportunity and am looking forward to leveraging my experience to help BackWeb realize its strategic vision in the market."

Ms. Maxwell joins the board with more than 20 years of executive experience in the interactive communications and traditional media industries. Ms. Maxwell is currently a business development consultant for Apax Partners, a leading international private equity investment group, where she assists the firm's portfolio companies in Israel, Europe and the United States and is an active board member for several organizations that promote economic and social development in Israel and the Middle East. She is president emeritus of Commtouch (Nasdaq: CTCH), a leading global provider of messaging solutions. She was the company's president from 1997 to 2001. During her tenure at Commtouch, Ms. Maxwell was instrumental in growing the company from a private, 29-person operation to a publicly traded, global corporation with more than 440 employees worldwide and serving more than 300 key customers in 26 languages.

Prior to joining Commtouch in 1992, Ms. Maxwell co-founded The McKinley Group, the creator of the Magellan On-Line Directory and Guide, which she sold to Excite in 1996. The international directory/search engine was one of the earliest to help users quickly locate information on the then nascent World Wide Web. From 1974 to 1990, Ms. Maxwell was a reporter and producer at firms such as the Yorkshire and Southern Independent Television networks in the U.K. and at Djerassi Films Inc, in California.

Ms. Maxwell is the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades, she was most recently selected as one of the World Economic Forum's Top 100 Technology Pioneers for 2001 and she was awarded the Star Group's Leading Woman Entrepreneur Award of the World in 2001. She is a board member of numerous respected global organizations including the International Board of Governors of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace, Israel Insider and Israel 21st Century, among others.