Robert Herjavec

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Entrepreneur and investor Robert Herjavec is known for his role on Shark Tank.

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Robert Herjavec is an entrepreneur and investor who built a career in cybersecurity before becoming a longtime panelist on ABC’s reality television series Shark Tank. He is known for founding and leading technology companies and for investing in early-stage businesses on the show, where he has been a regular since its debut in 2009.

Herjavec was born September 14, 1962, in Zbjeg, Croatia, which was then part of communist-ruled Yugoslavia, and lived in a home with a dirt floor. He was an only child. His father was imprisoned by the government, and after his release, the family fled the country, immigrating to Canada when Herjavec was 8 years old. The family arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia with a single suitcase and settled in Toronto, where they lived in a basement apartment for more than a year.

One of Herjavec’s most vivid childhood memories was seeing a Cadillac on a Toronto street when he was about 10 years old. His father told him that Cadillacs were “for rich people.” “I didn’t know what a Cadillac was, I didn’t know what rich people were, but ever since then, I wanted cars,” Herjavec later recalled. Years after achieving financial success, he bought his father a pearl white Cadillac Sedan DeVille, an acknowledgment of the sacrifices his parents made to ensure he had a brighter future than he could have had in Yugoslavia.

Herjavec received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Toronto in 1984. While working as an editorial assistant at a Canadian television station, his Croatian background proved useful when the station needed someone who spoke the language to serve as a field producer during the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. After returning from the Olympics, he worked in the film industry before shifting into computers, beginning with a job at LogiQuest, a supplier of computing equipment for businesses.

After being fired from that company in 1990, Herjavec started BRAK Systems, an Internet-security company that he grew into one of the largest of its kind in Canada. In 2000, he sold BRAK to AT&T Canada for $30.2 million. Three years later, he founded the Herjavec Group, another cybersecurity firm, which expanded internationally and became the basis of his long-term business career.

In 2006, Herjavec was cast as a judge in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reality TV show Dragons’ Den, playing one of the “dragons” who decided whether to invest in entrepreneurs’ ideas for businesses. After several seasons, he landed a similar role in 2009 as an original cast member on the U.S. version of the show, ABC’s Shark Tank, along with Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, and Kevin O’Leary.

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Tipsy Elves cofounders Nick Morton (left) and Evan Mendelsohn received a $100,000 investment from Robert Herjavec on Shark Tank in 2013.

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Early in his time on Shark Tank, Herjavec learned that television investing required a different approach from his work in cybersecurity. He later recalled that Executive Producer Mark Burnett told him, bluntly, “I don’t know how to say this to you, but what you do is boring. You’re missing the entire point of the show.” The lesson, Herjavec said, was that viewers responded to products with immediate, visual appeal—items they might buy on impulse rather than complex, behind-the-scenes technology.

He began focusing on businesses that sold products to the public, including Tipsy Elves, a company that got its start producing novelty Christmas sweaters intentionally designed to be ugly and later expanded into other apparel. The investment became one of his most memorable on Shark Tank.

Despite his commercial and television success, Herjavec went through a difficult period following the breakup of his marriage to Diane Plese after 24 years. The separation in 2014 was followed by estrangement from his children, a development he later described as devastating. In a 2015 interview with People magazine, Herjavec said he had contemplated suicide. “Everyone has their kryptonite,” he said. “For me, it was my kids. It took me to a place I never thought I would go.”

Seeking help, he reached out to a pastor, who connected him with the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. There, Herjavec began volunteering, delivering food, clothing, and other necessities to people living on the streets. “I was hollow and broken,” he said. “And these people saved my life.”

In early 2015, he joined the cast of Dancing With the Stars. A year later, he married Kym Johnson, his former dance partner on the show.

Since joining Shark Tank, Herjavec has remained a regular cast member on the program. In his business career, he continued to lead the Herjavec Group after selling a majority stake to private equity firm Apax Partners in 2021, serving as chief executive officer until 2024. After a 2023 merger with Fishtech Group, the company was renamed Cyderes, where Herjavec remains involved as an advisor and investor.