Ambassador MA Young-sam majored in International Relations at Korea University and obtained his master’s degree at Georgetown University. And he started his diplomatic services in 1981, and served as the Ambassador to Israel and the first Head Representative to Palestine. His last foreign post was the Ambassador to Denmark. At the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Ma served as the Director of UN Human Rights & Social Affairs Division and the Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau. He was also appointed as the first Ambassador for Public Diplomacy. As an international umpire as well as a referee of table tennis, he served as the chair of the ITTF’s Umpires and Referees Committee (URC). He also worked as a Co-chair of International Working Group on Sport and Persons with Disabilities, affiliated with the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). After retiring from the Korean government in 2016, he served as the Director of the UNITAR Jeju International Training Center for two years and served as the Secretary-General of Korea-Arab Society from 2021 to 2023. Now he is a research fellow at Korea University and Jeju National University.