Robert Herjavec / Herjavec Group / Cyderes

Robert Herjavec is a Croatian-Canadian entrepreneur, investor, and Shark on ABC's Shark Tank (Season 1–, 2009). Born in 1962 in Zbjeg, Croatia (then Yugoslavia), he immigrated to Canada at age 8 with his parents, his mother's entire worldly possessions in a single suitcase. His father had been arrested 22 times by the communist regime for speaking against the government. The family lived in a Toronto basement with cockroaches and no money — an origin story Herjavec returns to in every interview, every keynote, every book.