Professor Yves Cabannes sat on the advisory board of Silk Cities and also actively participated in multiple projects at Silk Cities. His academic excellence was combined with his vast practical experience as an international development consultant, covering vast geographies of 60 countries (Africa, Arabic countries, Asia and Pacific Europe, Latin America and The Caribbean), from local governments to NGOs and community initiatives, as well as international agencies.  Yves was a planner and urban specialist, Emeritus Professor of Development Planning at Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (UCL). He had particular experience and interest in urban agriculture and food sovereignty, collective and communal forms of land tenure, local currencies, participatory planning, municipal public policies, participatory budgeting, community-based micro-credit systems and appropriate technologies for local development. In parallel, he was an advocate of development and rights issues and passionate about capacity building. He loved to meet new people who could be impactful in their local contexts and work with them. Yves appreciated out-of-the-box initiatives and his trust in the next generation highlighted his advocacy side.

His support for what would later be incepted as Silk Cities started in 2010 when our founder a mature doctoral researcher shared her ambitious idea for organising a scientific international conference on cities and urban transformation in Iran at a time of complex global challenges. From then on, Yves became a visionary advisor and teammate. The collaboration between Yves and Silk Cities was ongoing and tapped into his wide experience and wisdom. He was a hands-on advisor who generously shared his insights at both strategic and operational levels with Silk Cities, but more importantly, he was a good friend who cared.

Yves was the scientific chair and a member of the scientific committee for the 1^st conference; a member of the advisory and scientific committees of our 2^nd international conference; a member of the scientific committee in our 3^rd conference; and a member of the scientific committee and chair panels in our 4^th conference. At the time of his departure, he was working as a co-editor for the Silk Cities peer-reviewed book.