Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran, born March 10, 1949, is an American businesswoman and investor. She is also a public speaker and consultant, a speaker, columnist syndicated, author, and TV presenter. The Corcoran Group was a New York City real estate brokerage that she started. NRT purchased it for $66 million in 2001. Corcoran soon exited the business. Corcoran was one of the original Shark Tank investors. She has appeared on every season of ABC's Shark Tank. In February of 2020, she has made 53 deals with the show, with the most significant being a $350,000 investment to purchase 40 percent of Coverplay. Corcoran was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the youngest of 10 children in a working class Irish-Catholic family. Florence Corcoran's mother was an exemplary homemaker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He was a mover from one job to the next throughout Corcoran’s childhood. Her family sometimes depended on food delivery for free from a friendly local grocery store. Corcoran recalls her father as someone who was drunk often and was rude to her mother. Corcoran was a struggle in school and was later diagnosed with dyslexia. Corcoran was educated at a Catholic elementary school and then enrolled in high school in Englewood at St. Cecilia High School. Corcoran who was in the process of failing numerous classes in her freshman year, moved to Leonia High School. There she received a grade of D.