The Go-Ahead Group plc (LSE: GOG) is a rail and bus operating company that was created following the privatisation of the UK's train and bus industries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Go-Ahead was initially formed as the Gateshead-based Go-Ahead Northern when the management team led by Martin Ballinger and Chris Moyes acquired that company during the privatisation of the National Bus Company in 1987. Early expansion saw the acquisition of a number of smaller competing bus operators in the north east, including Gypsey Queen and Low Fell Coaches. At the same time, a number of pubs were purchased, this element of the business trading under the name Go-Ahead Leisure: these were sold in 1996.

Despite bidding for a number of other larger bus operators in the intervening period, the first major acquisition was Brighton & Hove in November 1993, which was quickly followed by the Oxford Bus Company in March 1994. The privatisation of London Buses in the mid-nineties saw Camberwell-based London Central acquired in November 1994, and this purchase was built upon in June 1996, when fellow London bus operator London General was acquired from the management and employee team that acquired the business at privatisation.

Keith Ludeman (born 28 January 1950 in Bromley, Kent), was the CEO of the Go-Ahead Group plc and is now a Non-Executive Director.

Ludeman was educated at Bromley Technical High School for Boys (three years below David Bowie - the school is now called the Ravens Wood School) on Oakley Road in Keston, and then undertook a BA in Geography at Newcastle University. After graduating in 1971 he joined Tynemouth and District Transport as a conductor (badge number AA 52142), for a summer job, but stayed for 15 months before undertaking an MSc in Transport Engineering and Planning at the University of Salford, with a thesis entitled: Problems And Planning of Community Railway Stations.

Ludeman then joined the local transport authority in Greater Manchester in the planning department, before switching to line management in Lancashire where he gained his bus driver's licence (badge number N 12281). After eight years he and his wife moved to Hong Kong where he worked as senior transport officer, before becoming a consultant in the private sector and then returning to the United Kingdom selling software for scheduling bus crews.