Len Dooley has advised me this morning (22/01/2026) that he had just heard from the son of John Hampton, Lachlan, that John passed away last August in Florida after complications following breaking a leg in a fall.
Len reminds us that John worked at OTC for many years before moving to Intelsat.
Some of you may have already been made aware of John’s passing but others may not hence this notice on the OTVA website.
May He Rest In Peace
6 Comments
I only got to meet John Hampton a couple of times while attending Intelsat meetings in Washington in the 1990’s.
A quick search of Transit magazines has the following:
April 1994:
JOHN HAMPTON, former OTC executive and currently Executive Vice-
President and Chief Operating Officer of international satellite organisation,
Intelsat, was named a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year’s
Australia Day honours.
John worked in engineering and management roles at OTC for more than 23
years before joining Intelsat in 1984. In his current position, John is second-in-
command of Intelsat, with primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations
of the global satellite system.
His award was given for distinguished and sustained contribution to the
development of international telecommunications for Australia and, in
particular, for the key role he played in improving efficiency, reducing costs
and enhancing accessibility of international services.
August 1994:
Many Telstra staff would also remember the contributions made to Intelsat by
former OTC executive, John Hampton.
John recently retired as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
of the international satellite organisation, and was recognised by its Board for
his ‘extraordinary level of commitment and dedication’. The Board also
recorded that John’s ‘wise counsel and experience’ would be greatly missed
by the organisation.
Garry Hausfeld
I have good memories of working for John when he headed the international relations section of OTC.
He was always the life and soul of social gatherings and had the wonderful talent of being able to play the piano by ear so that he could satisfy most any song request without difficulty!
John Hughes
I remember having to present the OTC bid for the Pacific node of the Intelsat TTC&M network to John Hampton when he visited OTC as a senior executive of Intelsat in 1988. Intelsat had a 10 site TTC&M network of which Australia had long been one of the two sites in the Pacific along with Yamaguchi, Japan. OTC had been hosting that Intelsat site (along with ESA) at Carnarvon but When NASA pulled out of Carnarvon causing OTC to close that site we offered to move Intelsat to Ceduna but Intelsat did not like the low look angles to their Indian Ocean satellites so declined the OTC offer and moved the site to Jakarta.
Shortly afterwards Intelsat decided to reduce their 10 sites from 10 to 6 with only one site in the Pacific. There was intense competition between Japan and Australia for the one site in the Pacific (with 14 other bidders joining in).
There was about a six month delay between submission of the bids and the contract award. We had bid in USD as required but the exchange rate went against us significantly during that 6 month period. At the meeting John listened closely to our concerns about the rising exchange rate and how we had been screwed by the Japanese antenna manufacturers who refused to provide us a firm quote by the deadline then raised their prices by 30% after we had submitted our bid in a blatant attempt to ensure that our bid was not viable. The OTC R&D team had been developing some Australian designed antennas with CSIRO and we asked John if we could substitute these for the Japanese antennas in our bid.
John said he thought that would be acceptable and also suggested that we include a quote for a price in AUD in addition to the USD quote. We complied and managed to make the antenna swap and offer the AUD price in our best and final offer meetings with Intelsat.
Shortly afterward OTC was awarded the contract for the Pacific Intelsat TTC&M site beating out Japan and all the others and out of the 6 new sites we were the only one where Intelsat chose to award the contract in the local currency rather than in USD which eliminated our exchange rate problem.
That meeting with John in Sydney was instrumental in finding suggestions that could work within the system to achieve an outcome that Intelsat wanted (OTC had been assessed as best operationally and best technically out of the 16 bids but we were not the lowest cost) and his suggestions made a big difference in OTC winning that bid.
Intelsat appreciated the technical and operational prowess of OTC so much that the OTC site quickly became the primary site for all major Intelsat activities for their new TTC&M network – including being the prime station for bringing the Intelsat 603 satellite to the Space Shuttle for the 1992 rescue of that satellite stranded in Low Earth Orbit where the NASA astronauts captured the satellite and mounted a new apogee kick motor to take it to Geostationary orbit.
The spirit of OTC never left John even though he spent the latter part of his life in the US. John was always a true friend of OTC and Australia.
May he rest in peace.
Cheers,
Bill Barrett
I well remember John from Compac days.
I think he also worked on the DEW line (Distance Early Warning) in Canada when the cold war was peaking and war threatened.
All these years have passed and still threat and counter threats are ongoing.
He was a friendly and smart man. R.I.P.
Cheers James Keenan
Thank you Peter (and Len) for passing on this sad news.
I envied John’s opportunities to work with Lee Lacocca, etc.
I did admire his unique style. His handling of staff relations and ability to mix were forever well regarded. His ability to grasp issues was outstanding. Consequently he demonstrated excellent negotiation skills.
What bad luck to get complications from a broken leg.
My condolences to his family,
Yours sincerely
Wallace W DONALD
When John Hampton left OTC to take up a role at Intelsat, I succeeded him as Assistant General Manager (International) at OTC. In this capacity, I attended Intelsat Board meetings in Washington, DC, and worked closely with John over an extended period.
John was a larger-than-life character who left a powerful impression on people and organisations alike. Enormously likeable, he inspired strong loyalty among his staff and colleagues and was highly respected by representatives of telecommunications organisations around the Intelsat Board table. As Head of Engineering and Operations, John was effectively the most senior executive at Intelsat after the CEO, Rich Colino.
Soon after, John faced one of the most challenging episodes of his career. It emerged that CEO Rich Colino had initiated a systematic fraud within Intelsat for personal financial gain. Along with two senior colleagues, John became a whistleblower, standing firm in the face of Colino’s threats of dismissal and legal action. This required courage of a very high order. John helped guide the Intelsat Board to the decision to dismiss Colino, who was later sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
John retired from Intelsat in the 1990s.
Following the organisation’s privatisation in 2001 and relocation of its headquarters to Bermuda, the new CEO, Conny Kullman—himself a protégé of John’s from Intelsat Engineering—recognised the continuing value of John’s experience and invited him back as a consultant.
John answered the call and, no doubt at considerable personal sacrifice, relocated to the sunshine and beaches of Bermuda, where he continued to share his wisdom and expertise for a further two years.
John enriched all those he encountered.
Regards
Chris Vonwiller