Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. She founded 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 one of ABC's original Shark investors has been part of each episode of Shark Tank. In February 2020 Corcoran had signed 53 deals, with the most significant being a $350,000 investment that was able to cover 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the second of 10 children in a working class Irish-Catholic family. Florence Corcoran was Florence's mom and also a housekeeper. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He was constantly moving from one job to the next during Corcoran’s childhood. Her family sometimes relied on free food delivery from a nearby supermarket. Corcoran remembers her fatheras who was a drunk at times excessively, and treated her mother with disrespect and condescendingly, particularly after he'd had a few drinks. Corcoran was struggling in school, and she discovered later that she was dyslexic. Corcoran was educated in an Catholic elementary school, and later began high school in Englewood at St. Cecilia High School. Corcoran completed her studies at Leonia High School with a diploma in English, despite not completing several classes in her first year of high school.