Meet the Visionaries Behind SkinBit
Our founding team brings together a unique combination of personal experience, medical expertise, technological innovation, and design excellence—all unified by a shared mission to revolutionize skin cancer detection. With backgrounds spanning Stanford Medicine, Meta, Raytheon, and Apple, our leadership team has the depth of knowledge and breadth of experience to transform how the world approaches skin health.
Jonathan Benassaya
Founder and CEO
Jonathan brings a powerful personal connection to SkinBit's mission as both a melanoma survivor and accomplished entrepreneur. With over two decades of experience building transformative consumer platforms, he has founded and successfully exited three technology companies, including Deezer (Euronext), StreamNation, and MagicParty.
His executive leadership at Life360 and Meta provided him with deep expertise in scaling global products and building subscription-based businesses. Jonathan's firsthand experience navigating the complexities of skin cancer diagnosis fuels his passion for creating accessible, technology-driven solutions that detect skin cancer early and save lives.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Sancy Leachman, MD, PhD
Dr. Sancy Leachman has spent 25 years solving the problem that SkinBit was built to address: catching skin cancer earlier, when it's still curable.
As former Chair of Dermatology at Oregon Health & Science University, she built an advanced imaging center and led Oregon's "War on Melanoma"— a statewide early detection campaign. During this initiative, Oregon's melanoma death rate dropped from 4th-highest in the nation to 31st, representing a 41% decrease — the third-best improvement in the country.
Dr. Leachman also created MoleMapper, one of the first Apple ResearchKit medical apps, which generated the world's largest public collection of skin images for AI research. With twelve years of hands-on experience implementing novel early detection technologies in real clinics, she knows what works for patients and providers — and what doesn't. She brings that hard-won knowledge to SkinBit (see selected citations).
[Selected Citations ↓]
Dr. Leachman has published over 270 manuscripts, which have been cited over 14,000 times by her peers. Google Scholar gives her an h-index of 66. Some of her landmark papers include:
Clinical Innovation: Leachman SA, Hickerson RP, Schwartz ME, et al.
First-in-human mutation-targeted siRNA phase Ib trial of an inherited skin
disorder.
Molecular Therapy. 2010;18(2):442-446.
Leachman SA, Carucci J, Kohlmann W, et al. Selection criteria for genetic
assessment of patients with familial melanoma.
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2009;61(4):677.e1-14.
Leachman SA, Lucero OM, Sampson JE, et al. Identification, genetic testing,
and management of hereditary melanoma.
Cancer Metastasis Reviews. 2017;36(1):77-90.
Webster DE, Suver C, Doerr M, Mounts E, Domenico L, Petrie T, Leachman SA,
Trister AD, Bot BM. The Mole Mapper Study, mobile phone skin imaging and
melanoma risk data collected using ResearchKit.
Scientific Data.
Petrie T, Samatham R, Webster DE, Leachman SA. New Release of User-Captured
Images from the Oregon Health & Science University Melanoma MoleMapper
Project.
Scientific Data. 2025;12:1346. Early Detection & Public Health
Leachman SA, et al. Melanoma Early Detection: Big Data, Bigger
Picture.
Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 2019.
Johnson MM, Leachman SA, Aspinwall LG, et al. Skin cancer screening:
recommendations for data-driven screening guidelines and a review of the US
Preventive Services Task Force controversy.
Melanoma Management. 2017;4:13-37.
Goldstein AM, Chan M, Harland M... Leachman SA... et al. Features
associated with germline CDKN2A mutations: a GenoMEL study of
melanoma-prone families from three continents.
Journal of Medical Genetics. 2007;44(2):99-106.
Goldstein AM, Chan M, Harland M... Leachman SA... et al. High-risk melanoma
susceptibility genes and pancreatic cancer, neural system tumors, and uveal
melanoma across GenoMEL.
Cancer Research. 2006;66(20):9818-9828.
Oji V, Tadini G, Akiyama M... Leachman SA... et al. Revised nomenclature
and classification of inherited ichthyoses: results of the First Ichthyosis
Consensus Conference in Soreze 2009.
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2010;63(4):607-641.
Justin Ko, MD, MBA
Co-Founder and Medical Advisor
As Chief of Medical Dermatology at Stanford Hospital, Dr. Ko brings unparalleled clinical expertise in skin cancer diagnostics and digital health innovation to SkinBit. His pioneering research on AI applications in dermatology, published in Nature, positions him at the forefront of technological advancement in the field.
Beyond his academic contributions, Dr. Ko maintains an active clinical practice specializing in melanoma treatment while also serving as Patient Experience physician lead for Stanford Health Care. This unique combination of clinical excellence, research leadership, and patient-centered care ensures SkinBit's technology meets the highest standards while remaining focused on improving outcomes for patients.
Bill Dower, PhD
Co-Founder - Hardware Engineering
With a PhD in synthetic aperture radar from the University of Oklahoma and extensive experience developing cutting-edge imaging systems, Bill brings critical technical expertise to SkinBit's innovative platform. His career spans leadership roles at Raytheon, where he designed advanced radar systems, and defense technology startups Epirus and Chaos Industries, where he developed electromagnetic pulse systems and pioneering radar applications.
Bill's specialized knowledge in creating high-resolution imaging technologies that can "see" beneath surfaces is instrumental in SkinBit's development of non-invasive skin cancer detection tools that outperform traditional screening methods.
Manuel Colom
Co-Founder - Patient Experience
Manuel's two decades of experience in user interface and experience design, including his tenure as lead designer at Apple, brings a human-centered approach to SkinBit's technology. As a serial entrepreneur himself, he understands how to translate complex technical capabilities into intuitive, accessible experiences.
Manuel's expertise ensures that SkinBit's revolutionary skin cancer detection platform is not only medically advanced but also designed with the needs of patients, providers, and partners at its core—making sophisticated technology approachable and effective for everyone involved in the care journey.
Ilya Novoselskiy
Co-Founder - AI & Computer Vision
With a strong foundation in biological sciences and award-winning research experience, Ilya brings specialized expertise in computer vision and machine learning to SkinBit's mission. Following his recognition as Student of the Year at Belarusian State University, he transitioned to data science in 2018, developing sophisticated algorithms across fraud detection, NLP, and demand forecasting—where he improved accuracy by 41% at Freshly.
His exceptional talent in medical imaging was recognized when he won the prestigious International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) challenge in 2024, demonstrating his mastery of dermatological image analysis. At SkinBit, Ilya applies his specialized knowledge in computer vision to develop advanced models for skin lesion detection and localization, dramatically enhancing the diagnostic accuracy that forms the foundation of our life-saving technology platform.
