Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran, born March 10, 1949 is an American businesswoman and investor. She is also a speaker as a consultant, columnist syndicated to a speaker writer, author and television personality. She was the founder of The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001. She shortly thereafter exited the company. Corcoran was among the original Shark Tank investors. She has appeared on every season of ABC's Shark Tank. Corcoran had signed 53 contracts until February of 2020. Her largest deal was her $350,000 investment in Coverplay for 40%. Corcoran was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the second of 10 children from a working class Irish Catholic family. Florence, her mother was a homemaker. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. moved from job to job throughout Corcoran's childhood. Her family depended sometimes on food deliveries from an artisanal local grocery store for free food. Corcoran remembers her father, a man who sometimes drank too much and treated her mother with disrespect and condescendingly, especially after he'd had a few drinks. Corcoran struggled at school, and was later told that she was dyslexic. Corcoran was educated in a Catholic elementary school and then enrolled in high school in Englewood at St. Cecilia High School. Corcoran completed her studies at Leonia High School with a degree in English after having failed several classes during her first year.