Barbara Ann Corcoran

  Barbara Ann Corcoran was a speaker, investor, and businesswoman from the United America. In 2001, she established The Corcoran Group in New York City. She sold the company to NRT for $66 million. Then, shortly after she left the business. One of the show's first "Shark" investors, Corcoran has appeared in all 12 seasons of ABC's Shark Tank to date. By February 2020, she had signed 53 deals. The largest of these was a $350,000 investment in Coverplay at 40 percent. Corcoran was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the second of 10 children in a middle class Irish-Catholic family. Florence Corcoran's mother was a homemaker. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr., bounced from job to job during Corcoran's youth. At times, her family relied on the delivery of free food from a local grocery store. Corcoran states that her father was a drunk who did her mother a disservice and sarcastic remarks. Corcoran struggled throughout her schooling, later learning that she had dyslexia. Corcoran began high school at St. Cecilia High School Englewood, after she left her Catholic elementary school. Corcoran graduated from Leonia High School with a diploma in English, despite not completing several classes in her freshman years.