{"id":901793,"date":"2026-09-19T15:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/901793\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:06:22","slug":"access-plus-capital-leader-ushan-samarakone-dies-at-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/901793\/","title":{"rendered":"Access Plus Capital leader Ushan Samarakone dies at 32"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A photo of Ushan Samarakone, vice president of impact at Access Plus Capital, is displayed during the inaugural SCALE Success Summit in Fresno on Sept. 17, 2026. Samarakone, who helped shape the summit and SCALE Fresno initiative, died Sept. 10 at age 32. Photo by Frank Lopez<\/p>\n<p class=\"dpsp-share-text \" style=\"margin-bottom:10px\"> Share: <\/p>\n<p>The Central Valley business community is mourning the death of Ushan Samarakone, vice president of impact at <a href=\"https:\/\/accesspluscapital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Access Plus Capital<\/a> and a leader in regional small business development efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Samarakone, 32, died Sept. 10. The cause has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUshan was a deeply valued member of the Access Plus Capital family. His dedication, kindness, and commitment to his work, SCALE Fresno, and the greater Fresno community touched many lives. He was not only a respected colleague and community leader, but also a cherished friend and beloved member of his family,\u201d read a post on Access Plus Capital\u2019s LinkedIn page.<\/p>\n<p>Attendees at the inaugural SCALE Success Summit observed a moment of silence Thursday in Samarakone\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/scale-fresnos-goal-boost-small-biz-ownership-by-30\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SCALE Fresno is a regional initiative aimed at increasing small business ownership<\/a> in Fresno County by 30% by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Tate Hill, president and CEO of Access Plus Capital, said Samarakone designed much of the programming for the inaugural summit and had been involved with SCALE Fresno from its beginning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of this today is a testament to his work, his commitment, his dedication to community, and the outpouring from our small business ecosystem is exemplified by that support and care. We recognize that not only do people care for small businesses, but we care for each other as an ecosystem,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>Hill said the team expected it would be difficult to hold the event without Samarakone, but much of what made the summit possible was the work he had already done.<\/p>\n<p>He said Samarakone was always thinking of others and his team while working to ensure the community was represented.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Sri Lanka, <a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/fresno-study-aims-to-make-southeast-asian-businesses-visible-in-data-funding-decisions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Samarakone embraced the Southeast Asian community<\/a> through his work at Access Plus Capital and sought to ensure its voices were heard, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>Hill said Samarakone overcame adversity after immigrating to the United States and losing his father a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Esteban Herevia, program manager with the Downtown Fresno Partnership, said Samarakone was instrumental in helping the organization with the management and layout of its SCALE-related program.<\/p>\n<p>Herevia described Samarakone\u2019s death as a major loss for the partnership and the broader business community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe always had some idea to throw at us. That energy and his willingness to explore ideas \u2014 he was a lot of fun,\u201d Herevia said.<\/p>\n<p>Access Plus Capital said information about memorial arrangements or opportunities to express condolences will be shared if Samarakone\u2019s family chooses to make those details public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A photo of Ushan Samarakone, vice president of impact at Access Plus Capital, is displayed during the inaugural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[311955,45,49,48,154532,311956,48586,40981,137,124963,311957,11274,311958,311959],"class_list":["post-901793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-access-plus-capital","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-valley","tag-downtown-fresno-partnership","tag-economic-development","tag-editors-picks","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-fresno","tag-scale-fresno","tag-small-business","tag-tate-hill","tag-ushan-samarakone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}