Hemendra Prasad Barooah, was an Indian tea planter and entrepreneur, known for his contributions to Assam tea and tourism industries. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2013, that bestowed on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of trade and industry. He was born on 1 April 1926 in Jalukonibari, Jorhat, Assam, India. Mr. Barooah graduated from the Calcutta University taking position among the first ten top students and getting top Government Scholarships' throughout. He became the first person from the North East to achieve the MBA degree in 1949 from prestigious Harvard Business School, USA.

Barooah joined the family tea plantation business in 1950 and rapidly increased the volume of its operations by undertaking modernizing plans in the gardens. Apart from acquiring several new gardens in B&A Ltd, he forayed into other business ventures like packaging, tea broking, heritage tourism and leisure resort when he promoted B & A Packaging India Ltd, Assam Tea Brokers Pvt. Ltd, Heritage North East Pvt. Ltd and Kaziranga Golf Club Pvt. Ltd. B&A Ltd was the first company promoted by an Assamese family to go public when it became listed in the Stock Exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay and Guwahati. He remained Chairman in two companies namely B&A Ltd and B&A Packaging India Ltd. He was elected President of the 'Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry' the country's oldest chamber of commerce in 1996. Mr. Barooah was instrumental in opening of the Guwahati Chapter of Bengal Chambers which was the first major business Chamber in the North East, devoted to industrial development of the North East. He died on 31 July 2013 in Bangkok.