Barbara Ann Corcoran is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. She founded The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, that she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001. She is now a television personality as a "Shark" investor on ABC's Shark Tank, a position she has held for 11 seasons. As of February 2020, she has made 53 deals on the show, the largest being a $350,000 investment for 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran is a columnist for More, The Daily Review, and Redbook. She has written several books, and has been featured on Larry King Live, NBC's Today show, hosts The Millionaire Broker with Barbara Corcoran on CNBC, writes a weekly column in the New YorkDaily News, and is a speaker and consultant.
After graduation, she taught school for a year, but soon moved on working various jobs including a side job renting apartments in New York City. While she was a waitress, her boyfriend convinced her to work for a real estate company. She wanted to be her own boss, and in 1973, while working as a receptionist for the Giffuni Brothers’ real estate company in New York City, co-founded The Corcoran-Simonè with her boyfriend, who loaned $1,000. She split from her boyfriend 7 years later after he told her he was going to marry her secretary and she then formed her own firm, The Corcoran Group. In the mid-1970s, she also began publishing The Corcoran Report, a newsletter covering real estate data trends in New York City. In 2001, Corcoran sold her business to NRT for $66 million. In September 2017, Corcoran was announced as a contestant for season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, where she was partnered with Keo Motsepe. She is the third Shark Tank "shark", after Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec, to take part. On September 25, 2017, Corcoran and Motsepe were the first couple eliminated. In 2020, she appeared on the sixth season of Grace and Frankie as herself.
Personal life
Corcoran lives in Manhattan with her husband, Bill Higgins, a retired Navy captain who participated in the Gulf War and is a former FBI agent. The couple married in 1988. Corcoran gave birth to their son, Tom, in 1994, via in vitro fertilization, with an egg donated by her sister Florence. The couple later adopted a daughter, Kate. In 2001, she purchased a 2,700 square-foot apartment in a co-op building on Park Avenue for $3.5 million. In 2015, Corcoran purchased a penthouse unit on Fifth Avenue for $10 million. In 2019, for her 70th birthday, she held a mock funeral. Her hobbies include skiing and going to the beach. Corcoran has dyslexia.
