Business Women Awards 2025
ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE:
Gloria Chacón, Green View Tree Service LLC owner and licensed arborist
GLORIA CHACÓN’S PARENTS wanted her to be a lawyer. Life, as usual, had other plans.
Today, as a licensed arborist, Chacón owns Green View Tree Service LLC, a Cranston-based company specializing in removing and trimming trees, responding to 24-hour-a-day emergencies for homeowners and municipalities, and hydroseeding pesky lawns that refuse to grow.
“To me, climbing trees was fun, but my company job is more about leadership,” Chacón said.
As a Guatemalan immigrant, Chacón joined her family in Providence’s Olneyville section in 2005 when she was 15. Guatemala is a beautiful country, she says, but it was wracked with gang violence. In a failed extortion attempt, the family house had been burned down not long before they emigrated to the U.S.
After earning her bachelor’s degree from Berkeley University, Chacón launched Green View Tree in 2017. The first piece of equipment was a $30 lawn mower bought at a yard sale. To find clients, Chacón printed and distributed flyers to her neighbors.
After three months, as the business was booming, Ronald Chacón, Gloria’s husband, quit his full-time job as a diesel mechanic. Three months after that, they hired their first employee.
“I put all my love and effort into it and decided we could make a living at this,” she said. “I saw an opportunity in tree service. There’s a bigger profit margin than landscaping, but it’s also a big investment.”
Today, at 34, she’s one of just 52 female licensed arborists in a field that numbers more than 800, according to the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Now, Chacón’s staff of eight handles everything from landscaping to climbing trees to operating the buckets. Ninety percent of the company’s business is with municipalities, she says, tree trimming or mowing or prepping sites for planting, which requires an arborist on-site. Her husband is a supervisor with the business and goes to job locations.
With her focus on the environment, Chacón says she’s committed to giving back to the community, donating materials to school gardens, particularly in Olneyville, where she grew up. Last year, her hard work was recognized with a regional award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“I’ve been surrounded by hardworking women in my family,” she said.
