Blake Cholost

Blake Cholost is the Deputy CFO of Kinderhook Industries, a New York-based private equity firm. He oversees the firm’s finance function across its funds and management company, including fund accounting and administrator oversight, quarterly valuations and financial reporting, carried interest and waterfall calculations, treasury, tax, and finance support for fundraising and investor due diligence. Over the past year he has led Kinderhook’s adoption of AI across finance and operations, deploying Claude-based workflows that automate the quarterly close, reconciliations, financial statement review, and investor reporting. Prior to joining Kinderhook, Mr. Cholost was a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Assurance Services practice. Mr. Cholost earned his B.S. in accounting from the University of Connecticut.