A philatelist, curator and collector who has spent more than three decades connecting people with history through the mail.A philatelist, curator and collector who has spent more than three decades connecting people with history through the mail.

Alex Haimann was seven, growing up in Metro Detroit, when a grade-school teacher brought worldwide stamps to a geography lesson. They came from China, from Africa, from Europe. He was struck that something so light could have traveled so far.

The West Suburban Stamp Club in Plymouth, Michigan, made him welcome, and he joined the American Philatelic Society at ten. At thirteen he ran his first dealer table at a local stamp show.

In 2001, still in high school, he took a booth at the APS StampShow in Chicago. He was the youngest dealer on the national circuit.

As a freshman at George Washington University, Alex was recruited by the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. At nineteen he became the youngest staff member of its Collections Department, and he stayed five years as a collections specialist and web projects developer.

He was on the team that launched Arago, the Smithsonian's first virtual museum collections website, which debuted at the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition. At the same show he was the youngest dealer with a booth.

He wrote online exhibits for general audiences, from American art on postage stamps to the voyage of the Mayflower. He also carried the museum's digital collections into classrooms, visiting schools across the country.

In January 2008, at the APS Tiffany Dinner in Charlotte, North Carolina, Alex made a proposal. Young collectors were out there, he argued, buying and selling online and collecting alone. Find them, give them mentors and bring them to the big shows.

He worked with APS staff to recruit the first class of the Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship, which began in 2009. Each fellow spends a year with mentors in dealing, research and writing, or exhibiting. The program has now run for more than fifteen years.

Its graduates work at auction firms, the Philatelic Foundation and the Scott Catalogue, and serve on the boards of the APS and the American Philatelic Research Library. In 2025 the APS gave Alex its Ernest A. Kehr Award, for enduring contributions that help guarantee the future of the hobby.

In 2010 Alex moved to St. Louis to study at Washington University's Olin Business School. He earned his MBA in 2012 as student body president and commencement speaker, and he has made the St. Louis area home ever since.

In 2013 he was elected to the APS Board of Vice Presidents, which he chaired until 2016. He chaired the Secure the Future Committee, whose work led to the search for a new executive director, and served on both search committees that brought Scott English to the Society.

From 2016 to 2022 he chaired the Campaign for Philately Committee, reimagining the engagement and fundraising events at the Great American Stamp Show. He has sponsored 772 new APS members, second only to Don Sundman among living members. In 2025 he began On Location, a column in The American Philatelist that follows his challenge to visit a stamp club in every state.

In 2015 Alex was elected a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, the oldest philatelic society in the world. He also joined the Club de Monte-Carlo, founded by Prince Rainier III of Monaco and limited to one hundred collectors. At the main dinner of MonacoPhil 2015, he gave the toast to philately and to Prince Albert.

He served on the organizing committee of World Stamp Show-NY 2016. That year he also joined the committee for Stockholmia 2019, the exhibition celebrating the Society's 150th anniversary, and he rallied American members behind the American Tea Room at the Society's new London headquarters.

On November 26, 2019, Queen Elizabeth II came to 15 Abchurch Lane to open that building and mark the Society's 150th year. Alex was among four American members presented to her. Today he is the Society's USA Representative and sits on its Council.

Alex's principal collecting interest has long been the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. In 2015 he began developing the Royal Philatelic Society London's first public museum exhibition. Eight years later Clash of Empires opened in London, co-curated with the historian Ian Knight, and drew more than 2,000 visitors from 29 countries.

In May 2026 he co-curated From Empire to Commonwealth at the Boston 2026 World Stamp Expo, built around a Rolls-Royce used by Queen Elizabeth II. At the same show, on May 28, he signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists at its 100th signing ceremony, the first held in the United States.

Since January 2025 he has served as Executive Vice President of Cherrystone Auctions in New York, working with consignors and representing the firm at national and international shows.