Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran was born March 10, 1949. She is an American investor and speaker as well as consultant. The Corcoran Group was a New York City real estate brokerage she established. NRT purchased it for $66 million in 2001. Corcoran soon exited the business. Corcoran was among the first Shark Tank investors. She has appeared in every season of ABC's Shark Tank. In February of 2020, she had closed 53 deals. The most significant of these was a purchase of $350,000 for Coverplay at 40%. Corcoran was the second of 10 children from a Catholic family with a low-income, was born in Edgewater in New Jersey.  Her mother, Florence, was a homemaker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was her father. He moved between jobs and the next throughout Corcoran's early years. At times, her family relied on the delivery of free food from a local grocer. Corcoran still remembers her father as someone who drank sometimes and did not treat her mother with respect. Corcoran struggled in school and later learned that she was dyslexic. Corcoran was educated in an Catholic elementary school, and later began high school in Englewood at St. Cecilia High School. Corcoran graduated from Leonia High School with a diploma in English, despite having failed several classes during her first year.