| Honorific Suffix: | LVO |
| Birth Date: | 11 December 1943 |
| Birth Place: | London |
| Occupation: | Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection |
| Discipline: | philatelist |
Michael Richard Sefi LVO (born 11 December 1943[1]) is a British philatelist and was the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection from 1 January 2003.[2]
Sefi was born in London. When he was a child, his grandfather introduced him to stamp collecting. He began collecting stamps again in his early thirties when his own children received stamps and stamp albums as a gift[3] [4] and while he was looking for a hobby to ease the stress from the Mann Judd and Touche Ross merger. He specialized in collecting the first postage stamps of George V's reign.[4]
He worked as a chartered accountant until he partially retired in 1983. He was a partner of Mann Judd, later Touche Ross, [later Deloitte] in the 1970s.[5] He became an active member of the Great Britain Philatelic Society of which he was president between 2000/02 and 2012/14. Sefi was a member of Council of the Royal Philatelic Society London between 1990 and 2005 where he was a member of many decision-making bodies.[5]
In September 1996,[5] he was hired as deputy to the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, who was Charles Goodwyn. He helped him accelerate the mounting of the George VI postage stamp collection.[6] Sefi participated in international philatelic exhibitions of parts of the Royal Philatelic Collection and in welcoming students and researchers. He played a major role in the move of the collection from Buckingham Palace to St James's Palace in 1999.[4]
When Charles Goodwyn announced his retirement in late 2002, Sefi was chosen to succeed him among three other candidates by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.[7]
He retired as Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection in September 2018.
He directed the preparations of The Queen's Own, a Royal Collection exhibit at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., which was held in 2004.[8] To assist Sefi, he had the help of Surésh Dhargalkar, an architect and conservation specialist, who was Sefi's assistant from 2003.[9] To help him for the mounting, he hired George VI specialist, Rod Vousden, as assistant.[10]