He holds a D.Sc. in Accounting from University of São Paulo, Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of São Paulo, where he holds a Professorship, as Full Professor.

In 1974 he helped introduce credit scoring in Brasil, in a famous article ' Como Prever Falencias' , helping higher risk and poorer people access to bank credit.

In 1975 he created the annual award for the Best Run Company of Brazil, 'Melhores e Maiores' for Revista Exame, initiating a movement that became known as ' benchmarking', just as Tom Peters did with his American 1981 book 'In Search of Excellence'.

In 1992 he was one of the leaders in Brazil for Social Responsibility, creating the first site for volunteer work, www.voluntarios.com.br. He also created one of the first sites in the world for internet charity donations, www.filantropia.org.

In 1994 he created the Best Run Charity Award, the 'Premio Bem Eficiente' , that every year awards the best 50 best run charities of Brazil.

He is the author of Brazil: The Emerging Economic Boom 1995-2005 (ISBN 0070340846) , which won the Jabuti Prize of 1995 in non fiction, and periodically writes for Veja magazine. Kanitz has already written 13 books. His most recent book 'Ffamília acima de tudo was launched in Brazil on December 2009 (ISBN: 9788578600631)