Daniel F. Akerson, the former chief executive of General Motors, has returned to the Carlyle Group, the private equity giant where he worked before running the automaker.
Mr. Akerson, 65, is now the vice chairman of Carlyle and a special adviser to its board, the firm said on Friday. He joined Carlyle on March 1 and is based in Washington, where the firm has its headquarters.
The new roles represent a homecoming for Mr. Akerson, who ran Carlyle’s global buyout group from 2009 to 2010, and was co-head of the firm’s United States buyout group for six years before that. Before joining Carlyle, he was a senior executive at companies like MCI, General Instruments and Nextel.
“Carlyle is a natural fit as I embark on this next chapter of my professional life and I’m excited to return to familiar faces and new challenges,” Mr. Akerson said in a statement. His new responsibilities include providing guidance to Carlyle’s investment teams, management and board.
Mr. Akerson, who was succeeded at G.M. by Mary T. Barra, was seen as something of an accidental chief executive.
He joined the automaker’s board in 2009 as a representative of the government after the company left Chapter 11. Months later, the board forced out the holdover chief executive and replaced him with the chairman. But that chief soon left, opening the door for Mr. Akerson.
G.M. is now under scrutiny for its decade-long failure to disclose deadly safety problems before announcing a big vehicle recall. The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into whether the automaker failed to comply with laws requiring timely disclosure of vehicle defects, The New York Times reported this week.
“It is a delight to welcome Dan back to Carlyle,” Daniel A. D’Aniello, the chairman and co-founder of Carlyle, said in a statement. “His remarkable depth of leadership experience will be a great asset to the board and our investment teams.”