Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor and speaker. She is also a consultant, speaker writer, syndicated columnist, TV personality, author and author. The Corcoran Group is a New York City-based real estate brokerage. In 2001, the company was sold to NRT at $66 million. Corcoran left the company shortly thereafter. One of the show's first "Shark" investors, Corcoran has appeared in the entire 12 seasons of ABC's Shark Tank to date. Since February of 2020, she's signed 53 deals on the show, with the most significant being a $350,000 investment for 40 percent of Coverplay. Corcoran was born in Edgewater (New Jersey) as the second child of ten from a working-class Irish Catholic family. Florence, Corcoran's mother, was a housewife. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr., her father, was constantly changing jobs throughout Corcoran’s life. Her family frequently depended on food delivery services for free from the local grocer. Corcoran remembers her father as one who sometimes drank too much and treated her mother with disrespect and sneer, especially when he'd been drinking. Corcoran was a struggle in school, and eventually discovered that she had dyslexia. Corcoran was educated in an Catholic elementary school and then enrolled in high school in Englewood at St. Cecilia High School. Corcoran dropped several classes during her first year and transferred to Leonia High School where she was an A student.