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. The Corcoran Group, an NY-based real estate broker was established by Corcoran. NRT bought it in 2001 for $66 million. Corcoran then exited the business. Corcoran was among the first Shark Tank investors. She was a regular on every episode of ABC's Shark Tank. She has participated in 53 deals as of February, 2020. The most significant was a $350,000 investment that will cover 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran was the second child of 10 from a working-class Irish-Catholic family was born in Edgewater in New Jersey.  Her mother, Florence, was a homemaker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr., her father, was always changing jobs during Corcoran's career. Sometimes, the family relied on the delivery of food for free from a friendly local grocer. Corcoran remembers her father as one who often drank too much and treated her mother with disrespect and sneer, especially when he'd been drinking. Corcoran struggled in school, and was later told that she had dyslexia. Corcoran started in high school at St. Cecilia High School Englewood after attending a Catholic elementary school. Corcoran graduated from Leonia High School with a degree in English after having failed several classes during her first year of high school.