Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman investor, speaker, consultant and syndicated columnist. She is also an television host, and author. She was the founder of The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage located in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001 and shortly thereafter exited the company. Corcoran, one of ABC's initial Shark investors was a featured guest of each episode of Shark Tank. In February 2020 Corcoran was involved in 53 deals, with the most significant being a $350,000 investment which included 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran was the second child of 10 kids born to an Irish Catholic couple of working class living in Edgewater, New Jersey. Florence, her mother was an errand-taker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He was constantly moving from one job to the next throughout Corcoran's youth. In times, her family relied on the delivery of food for free from a friendly local grocer. Corcoran remembers her father as an intoxicated man who would sometimes treat her mother with contempt and disrespect, especially after the fact that he was drinking. Corcoran struggled at school and discovered later she was dyslexic. She went to an area Catholic elementary school, and then began the high school system at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran was proficient in a variety of classes during her freshman year. She was transferred to Leonia High School and graduated with a grade of D.