Whitbread has appointed the former general counsel (GC) of construction stalwart Balfour Beatty, Chris Vaughan, as its GC and company secretary.

Whitbread is the largest hospitality company in the UK, with brands including Costa Coffee, Premier Inn and Table Table.

Vaughan will take over from Simon Barratt who is retiring from the post after 18 years, though Barratt will continue to work part time for Whitbread as chairman of Costa's Chinese arm.

Vaughan left Balfour Beatty in July this year after seven years at the company. Prior to that he was joint head of legal at brewer SAB Miller between 2003 and 2007 and head of group legal at Bass between 1995 and 2003.

He has also spent six years in private practice with five years as an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and one year at CMS Cameron McKenna.

Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread, said: "Chris brings a wealth of experience in legal, ethics and compliance, governance, public affairs and sustainability and will be a great addition to the team."

Vaughan said he was looking forward to "a really interesting new challenge" at Whitbread.

He will take up his role from 1 October.

At Balfour Beatty Vaughan led a review of the construction company's UK legal advisers, with a view to reaching individual outsourcing agreements with panel firms in an effort to cut costs and increase efficiency.

In 2013 Belfour Beatty announced that Pinsent Masons would take on all of its day-to-day legal work, with more complex M&A and litigation work being referred to its current legal panel, which includes Linklaters, Eversheds, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Allen & Overy.

Vaughan's role at Balfour Beatty has been filled by David Merce, previously UK general counsel of the company's construction and services business.