The Short List
Launching 2025
Focus on the right relationships for better business results.
When it comes to business development, professionals often struggle not from a lack of opportunities but from not knowing where to focus their attention. With countless LinkedIn connections and cluttered CRM databases, the question remains: “What is the best use of my time?” The Short List provides a clear, actionable guide to identifying key contacts and nurturing those relationships into career catalysts. Featuring a step-by-step plan with easy-to-use exercises, it’s perfect for both newcomers and seasoned rainmakers. Streamline your networking and elevate your results with this indispensable guide from David Ackert, co-founder and CEO of PipelinePlus and renowned business development thought leader. Foreword authored by Dr. Heidi K. Gardner.
Meet The Author:
David Ackert
David is Co-Founder and CEO of Ackert, Inc. and its subsidiary, PipelinePlus. He is a highly regarded business development thought leader. Over the past two decades, David has pioneered revenue acceleration programs for hundreds of professional services firms around the globe.
He is the founder of several technology platforms including the PipelinePlus software suite. His programs are winners of “Your Honor Awards” in both the U.S. and Canada and have been featured in NLJ’s “Technologies on the Rise.” David regularly keynotes at partner retreats and speaks at industry conferences. He also serves as a guest lecturer at USC’s Marshall School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, and at the UCLA School of Law.
David is the author of The Short List: How to Drive Business Development by Focusing on the People who Matter Most, which will be published by Greenleaf Book Group in early 2025. His work has been published and quoted across several business books and media over the years, including the Los Angeles Times, the National Review, the Daily Journal, the Wall Street Journal, Above the Law, Attorney at Work, The Recorder, and the Los Angeles Business Journal. His Market Leaders Podcast has won several JD Supra Reader’s Choice Awards.
David volunteers as a Big Brother with the Big Brothers and Sisters program in Los Angeles. He is also the co-founder of Voices in Harmony, a mentoring organization that has worked with at-risk youth around the globe. He co-produced and appeared in the documentary film, “After Kony: Staging Hope,” chronicling mentoring programs he helped to design and facilitate for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda. The film was used as part of an awareness-raising campaign that raised millions of dollars for health and education in underserved Ugandan communities. David’s charitable work earned the “Difference Maker” award from one of his alma maters, Ithaca College.
David holds a master’s in psychology and is a Fellow at the College of Law Practice Management.
