Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran, born on March 10, 1949, is an American businesswoman and investor. She is also a speaker, consultant, columnist syndicated to a speaker writer, author and television personality. The Corcoran Group was a New York City real estate brokerage she established. NRT purchased it for $66million in 2001. Corcoran later left the business. Corcoran was one of the first Shark Tank investors. She has appeared on every season of ABC's Shark Tank. As of February 2020 she had signed 53 deals. The largest of these was a $350,000 investment for Coverplay at 40%. Corcoran was the second of 10 children from a working-class Irish-Catholic family, was born in Edgewater in New Jersey. Florence, Corcoran's mother, was a housewife. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He was constantly moving between jobs and the next throughout Corcoran's early years. The family relied on free food deliveries from a local grocery store. Corcoran recalls her father as one who occasionally drank too much and treated her mother with disrespect and contempt, particularly when he'd been drinking. Corcoran struggled through her schooling and was later diagnosed with dyslexia. Corcoran went to the local Catholic elementary school, and then began high school at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran completed her studies at Leonia High School with a degree in English after failing several courses during her freshman years.