Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran, born March 10, 1949, is an American businesswoman and investor. She is also a lecturer as a consultant, speaker, columnist syndicated, author, and TV show host. 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 after, she left the company. Corcoran is one of ABC's initial Shark investors has been part of every episode of Shark Tank. In February of 2020 Corcoran had signed 53 deals, with the biggest being a $350,000 investment which was able to cover 40 percent of Coverplay. Corcoran was the second of a family of 10 kids born to an Irish-Catholic couple working in the middle class in Edgewater, New Jersey. Florence, her mother was a homemaker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. became her father throughout Corcoran’s childhood. The family relied on the food provided by the local grocer who would deliver free food. Corcoran remembers her father, who was a drunk at times excessively, and treated her mother with disrespect and condescendingly, particularly after he'd had several drinks. Corcoran struggled at school, and was later told that she had dyslexia. She attended an area Catholic elementary school and started the high school system in St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran completed her studies at Leonia High School with a diploma in English, despite failing several courses during her first year of high school.