Leslie Near
Leslie Near took her grandmother's advice to "learn something new every day" as a binding oath. She still does: at 2 AM down a research rabbit hole, or consuming audiobooks while staining her deck by headlamp. She is obsessed with how people across the globe innovate through the challenges handed to them.
For a decade she taught Spanish, effecting change at the intersection of students, families, and rigid systems. That work sharpened a gift she was already born with: connecting dots that didn't know they were supposed to connect.
The mission is personal. In a middle school auditorium, Leslie learned that glass is an immortal, infinitely recyclable miracle: every piece ever made still exists somewhere on this planet. She never got over it. As a Nashville native watching her city innovate everywhere it looks, she knew glass recycling was the obvious next frontier. It just needed someone to channel it.
She co-founded Glass Continuum with no business degree and zero patience for excuses. She is not looking for business as usual. She is looking for the co-conspirators who will help her build an immortal home for an immortal resource.
Eric Near
Eric started as a kid obsessed with a hand-me-down Commodore 64, dissecting code to find the magic inside the machine. Thirty years later, across careers in cybersecurity, systems integration, and creative production, he has arrived at a clear conclusion: the machine is the easy part. The real complexity is in the human systems tethered to it.
At Glass Continuum, Eric is the connective tissue between vision and execution. He identifies the hidden threads linking logistics, finance, and technology into a coherent operation. He turns complex organizational challenges into clear, sustainable solutions, and bridges the gaps that others tend to miss.
His background spans SOC 2 readiness consulting, technical integration, and original audio composition. He brings that same multidisciplinary instinct to building the infrastructure that will carry Glass Continuum from launch to scale.