In 2012, Grunitzky's career was the subject of a Harvard Business School case study,[1] which is taught in the "Power & Influence" MBA class.
In 1998, he uprooted to New York and oversaw the magazine as it carved a niche for itself in the world of independent publishing, with its own distinctive brand of transcultural reportage.
In February 2003, Grunitzky and business partners Richard Wayner and Olivier Laouchez completed a multimillion-dollar financing deal led by Goldman Sachs Group.
[11] In February 2023, Grunitzky was elected to the board of trustees of MoMA PS1, a contemporary museum in New York City that presents some of today's most experimental, thought-provoking art.
[9] In 2019, Grunitzky was an Executive Producer, alongside Fernando Meirelles and the United Nations, of the feature-length documentary The Great Green Wall, about the African-led initiative to grow an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa.
[12] In 2023, Grunitzky was an Executive Producer of another environmental documentary, Blue Carbon [3]bringing together music and science to uncover new ways of listening to nature.
In 2021, seeking a solution to help address some of the systemic inequalities and injustices laid bare by the pandemic and racial justice movement in America, Grunitzky partnered with Richard Parsons (businessman) and some of New York's most successful entrepreneurs and investors to launch The Equity Alliance [4], an investment fund that seeks to democratize access to capital and expand opportunities for women and people of color.
Beginning life as predominantly an urban culture magazine, TRACE’s identity was quickly influenced by Grunitzky’s nascent interest in what he termed ‘transculturalism’ – a phenomenon referring to those individuals who, in their lifestyles, transcend all traditional sociological notions of race, class or gender.
[13][14] Although the magazine's front pages continued to feature stellar figures from the hip hop and R&B scenes, including Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige and Rihanna, the establishment of ‘country themed’ issues, beginning with ‘Brasil 2000’, marked a clear step in the direction of an explicitly international approach to popular culture.
In 2003, Grunitzky also launched TRACE TV, the world's first global urban music channel, with Richard Wayner and Olivier Laouchez, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Groupe Lagardère.
TRACE TV, which is now broadcast in over 150 countries, was successfully sold to European investors in July 2010, ending Grunitzky's involvement with the company.