Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor and speaker. She is also a consultant, speaker, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. She founded The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001, and shortly thereafter exited the company. Corcoran was a participant in 12 episodes of ABC's Shark Tank seasons. In February of 2020, she's signed 53 deals on the show, with the most significant one being $350,000 for 40 percent of Coverplay. Corcoran was the second of a family of 10 kids born to a working class Irish-Catholic couple located in Edgewater, New Jersey. Florence, her mother, was a household worker. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr., bounced between jobs throughout Corcoran's youth. The family relied on the food provided by a friendly local grocer for free food. Corcoran recalls her father, a man who sometimes drank too much, and treated her mother disrespectfully and condescendingly, especially after he'd had a few drinks. Corcoran was a struggling student in school. She later discovered that she had dyslexia. Corcoran was a student at an Catholic primary school within her neighborhood and began the high school year in St. Cecilia High School, Englewood. Corcoran was proficient in several classes during her freshman year. She transferred to Leonia High School and graduated with a grade of D.