Council of Philatelists

Molly Byrne is a business owner, designer, and philanthropist active in the Dallas community. She co-created Seven Bridges Foundation, a public sculpture garden and museum in Greenwich, Conn. Currently, she serves on the board of directors of the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Museum of Art. She is president and founder of TurningPoint Foundation, which generously supported the National Postal Museum’s new Byrne Education Loft, a space that allows the museum to provide students, educators and families with diverse programming opportunities.

Ian C. Gibson-Smith is president of Allied Defense Industries, Inc., a defense consulting company specializing in the provision of spare parts, purchasing, and logistic services. Born in England, his family moved here in his youth and he attended the College of William and Mary. He is dedicated to the arts, human rights, and community support. He is the founder and chair of the IanThom Foundation, a public charity established in memory of Thomas G. Martin. As a philatelist, he specializes in the issues of Great Britain.

Sonny Hagendorf is a dealer and specialist in rare U.S. postage stamps through his firm Columbian Stamp Company, Inc. He has been a professional philatelist for over thirty years, and during that time he has purchased or brokered many of the great United States rarities. Along with countless other philatelic treasures, he has sold five of the six blocks of the Jenny Inverts. He is an expert consultant to the Philatelic Foundation and serves on the board of several local charities in his community.

Yamil H. Kouri, Jr. became interested in postal history in the late 1970s. He has written close to 200 articles and monographs on postal history, primarily dealing with the maritime and military mail of Spain, former Spanish colonies, Cuba, the United States and several European countries. His most recent​​​​ book is Spanish Colonial and Mexican Mail in the United States​​​ (with Leo J. Harris). Kouri is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London​​​​​, numbered member of the Real Academia Hispánica de Filatelia e Historia Postal, and member of the European Academy of Philately. He has held leadership positions in the Postal History Society, the American Philatelic Society, American Philatelic Congress, U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, and the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History. He is the former president of the Cuban Philatelic Society and past editor of its journal, The Cuban Philatelist. He is vice-president of the Federación Interamericana de Filatelia (FIAF).​​​​​​​ He is a U.S. Philatelic Classics Society Distinguished Philatelists and in 2020 he​​​​​​​​​ signed the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain's Roll of Distinguished Philatelists. When he is not engaged in philately, sports or family activities, he works as an oncologist and hematologist in the Boston area.

Patrick Maselis is a fourth generation philatelist who has won numerous international awards for his exhibits of the Congo Free State and the 1849-1863 "medallion" issues of his native Belgium. Since 2009 he has been president of the Club de Monte-Carlo and served as general commissioner of its MonacoPhil exhibitions. He is also a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London and its vice president, as well as president of the Belgian Academy of Philately. In 2012, he was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists. A chemist by training, he is managing director of a major Belgian cereal manufacturing plant. He lives with his wife and two children in Roeselare.

Daniel A. Piazza became the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Chief Curator of Philately in 2014. He is responsible for exhibitions, research, and acquisitions related to the museum’s six million postage stamps and postal artifacts. Piazza lectures widely and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, The Today Show, and C-SPAN. He is a member of national and international philatelic societies and a frequent contributor to collector journals. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London in 2017 and named one of Linn’s Stamp News’s “Most Influential Philatelists” in 2022.

Wade E. Saadi, a businessman living in New York City, has been collecting since childhood and specializes in the U.S. Classic Period. He is also a writer, researcher, and exhibitor of these issues and has won numerous awards for exhibits and research. His gold medal 1847 exhibit is considered one of the finest studies in the shades and cancellations of that issue ever formed. He is currently exhibiting “Struck on Stamps–1851 to 1868,” a study of the evolution of early cancellations. He is past president of the APS, USPCS, and CCNY. He has served as editor of the 1847 section of The Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues since 1997. He is the chair of the World Stamp Show-NY2016 Organizing Committee and president of the NY2016 International Exhibition.

Donald Sundman is president of Mystic Stamp Company and serves on the Philatelic Foundation’s Board of Trustees. He co-sponsors the National Postal Museum's Maynard Sundman Philatelic Lecture series. His Freedom of Information Act request unraveled the mystery of the legendary “CIA Invert” stamps, and he donated one to the National Philatelic Collection. To protect collectors from a controversial U.S. Postal Service decision, Mystic filed suit to prevent the destruction of the recalled 1994 Legends of the West error sheets. In 1998 Mystic purchased America’s rarest stamp, the 1868 1-cent Z Grill, for a record price of $935,000. In 2005, the 1-cent Z Grill was traded in an even exchange for the unique 1918 Jenny Invert Plate-Number Block, valued at $2.97 million. The historic exchange of America’s most famous and valuable rarities was covered by the worldwide media, captivating the imaginations of collectors around the globe.