17 Facts About Yinka Faleti

Adeyinka Faleti was born on June 20,1976 and is a Nigerian-American politician and United States Army veteran who was the Democratic candidate in the 2020 Missouri Secretary of State election.

Yinka Faleti graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point and with a Juris Doctor from Washington University in St Louis.

Yinka Faleti has previously worked as the executive director of the nonprofit Forward Through Ferguson, the senior vice president of United Way of Greater St Louis, a state prosecutor at the St Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, and a litigation attorney at international law firm Bryan Cave.

Yinka Faleti's mother left three years after and left Faleti with his grandparents until he was able to get a Visa.

Yinka Faleti graduated from the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Sciences with a high school diploma.

Yinka Faleti went on to study human factors engineering at the United States Military Academy and graduated in 1998.

Yinka Faleti served two tours in Kuwait: the first tour was as a part of Operation Desert Spring and his second tour was as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Yinka Faleti was a tank platoon leader in Fort Hood and trained with 15 soldiers in M1A2 tanks.

In 2004, Yinka Faleti left the military and moved to St Louis to begin law school at the Washington University School of Law.

Yinka Faleti competed in the Trial Advocacy Team, earned Best Advocate in 2005, and served as team captain on the 2006 finalist team.

In 2013, Yinka Faleti began serving as Senior Vice President of Philanthropic, Donor, and Community Services at the United Way of Greater St Louis.

Yinka Faleti was awarded the Immigrant Working Professional Award in the St Louis Mosaic Project's 2018 Mosaic Workplace Awards for his work at Forward Through Ferguson.

In October 2019, Yinka Faleti announced that he was running for Missouri Secretary of State in 2020 against the Republican incumbent Jay Ashcroft.

Yinka Faleti garnered significant statewide media attention when he fundraised more than 7 times the amount of his opponent, Republican incumbent Jay Ashcroft, in the second quarter of 2020.

Yinka Faleti's endorsements included Let America Vote, St Louis Post Dispatch, St Louis American, Vote Vets, Missouri AFL-CIO and St Louis Labor Council, End Citizens United, Access MO, Collective PAC, Indivisible St Louis, Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL Missouri.

In 2021, Yinka Faleti became Chair of the Board of Directors of nonprofit organization Veterans for Political Innovation.

Yinka Faleti's role focuses on offering financial backing to early-stage startup founders of marginalized identities, who have historically have less access to capital.