Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant and syndicated columnist. She is also an TV personality, author and author. She co-founded The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001. She shortly after, she left the company. One of the original "Shark" investors, Corcoran has appeared in all 12 seasons of ABC's Shark Tank until now. Since February of 2020, she had signed 53 deals with the show, the largest one being $350,000 in 40 percent of Coverplay. Corcoran was born in Edgewater (New Jersey) as the second of ten children in a Catholic Irish working class family. Florence, her mother, was an exemplary household worker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He was a mover from one job to the next throughout Corcoran’s childhood. Her family often relied on free food deliveries from the local grocer. Corcoran recalls that her father was an alcohol-dependent drunkard who often treated her mother with condescension and disrespect, especially after having consumed alcohol. Corcoran struggled with her education and was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia. Corcoran was a student at the local Catholic elementary school and started the high school system in St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran who was in the process of failing numerous classes in her freshman year, transferred to Leonia High School. There she received a grade of D.