CEB is a global best practice insights and technology company that provides products and services to businesses worldwide.

CEB (formerly Corporate Executive Board) offered its first program to executives, Council on Financial Competition in 1983 when it was part of The Advisory Board Company. Fourteen years later, they split from Advisory Board Company and opened a new office in London.

CEB went public in 1999 on the NASDAQ exchange. Tom Monahan was appointed CEO in 2005. At that time, the company expanded offerings to accommodate middle market companies. In 2007, the company expanded domestically and opened offices in San Francisco and Chicago.

The company left Washington, D.C. in 2008 to move its global headquarters to the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.

In May 2015, the company changed its legal name to "CEB Inc."

In 2009, CEB acquired Toronto-based Warrillow & Co., and the financial services firm, TowerGroup

In May 2010, the company acquired consumer research and advisory company, Iconoculture. Later that year, CEB transferred listing of its common stock from NASDAQ to the NYSE, and began trading on 20 August 2010.

The company acquired Baumgartner & Partner, a Germany-based consulting firm in October 2011.In July 2012 CEB acquired Saville and Holdsworth Ltd.

In May 2016, CEB acquired Evanta Ventures, Inc. ("Evanta") for $275 million. Evanta is based in Portland, Oregon, and provides events, platforms and information offerings to train IT-security, human-resources and finance staff in collaboration and best practices.

On January 5, 2017 Gartner said it agreed to buy research and advisory company CEB Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $2.6 billion, expanding Gartner into a wider range of industries.

The company has published three books through Portfolio/Penguin. The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon was published on November 10, 2011. In 2013, Matthew Dixon with Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi wrote The Effortless Experience, published on September 12. The third book, The Challenger Customer was written by Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, Nick Toman, and Patrick Spenner and published on September 8, 2015.

CEB's IPO occurred February 22, 1999 at an offer price of $19. The company, previously on NASDAQ, entered into an alliance with NYSE Euronext in 2010 and began actively trading as CEB in 2012.