DETROIT, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- General Motors Co. handed the keys to the car company to board member Daniel Akerson, who took over as chief executive officer Wednesday.

Akerson, previously a partner at Carlyle Group, is a relative newcomer to the automotive industry, The Detroit News reported. He takes over from Ed Whitacre Jr., who will keep his chairman position, but give up his CEO duties. The switch was announced in early August.

Foremost on Akerson's to-do list is restoring GM to the status of a public company with an initial stock offering expected this fall.

GM, which went through bankruptcy proceedings in the summer of 2009, is attempting to extricate itself from the government's shadow. In its restructuring plan, the federal government ended up as owners of 61 percent of the company.

Whitacre has said GM did not want to be known as "Government Motors."

Whitacre also said Akerson, who has an undergraduate degree in engineering, has "been an active board member, asking all the right questions."

He has been on the board for more than a decade, but AOL co-founder Steve Case, who invited him to join the board, said there have been "rumblings, particularly in Detroit, that he's not a car guy."

However, "People will be pleasantly surprised by his passion for the business," Case said.