Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman investor speaking, consultant writer, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. The Corcoran Group is a New York City-based real-estate brokerage. In 2001, the company was sold to NRT at $66 million. Corcoran resigned from the company shortly thereafter. One of the original "Shark" investors, Corcoran has appeared in the entire 12 seasons of ABC's Shark Tank until now. In February of 2020, she had signed 53 deals. The largest of these was a purchase of $350,000 in Coverplay at 40 percent. Corcoran was born in Edgewater (New Jersey) as the second of ten children in a Catholic Irish working class family. [8] Her mother, Florence, was a household worker. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was a bouncing from job to job during Corcoran's childhood. Her family often depended on food delivery services for free from a local grocery store. Corcoran recalls her father as a man who occasionally drank too much and did her mother a disservice and condescension, particularly when he'd been drinking. Corcoran struggled through her schooling and later discovered that she had dyslexia. Corcoran was a student at an area Catholic elementary school, and then began the high school system in St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran graduated from Leonia High School with a diploma in English, despite having failed several classes during her first year.