About Illuminate Opportunity
Illuminating opportunities for people and organizations to innovate and positively impact the world. Empowering you to find your genius and express it to the world - from idea to launch.
Illuminate Opportunity LLC, founded by Brittany VanderBeek Phipps, is a growth strategy and innovation consultancy focused on building partnerships, programs, and initiatives that create economic, environmental, and community impact.
Working at the intersection of business, higher education, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector, Brittany helps organizations identify opportunities, engage stakeholders, develop new programs, and turn ambitious ideas into action.
Brittany brings a multidisciplinary background spanning corporate strategy, sustainability, innovation, economic development, fundraising, and partnership development. Her experience includes sustainability strategy consulting at BrownFlynn (ERM), advancing corporate innovation and sustainable mobility at Michelin, leading corporate philanthropy and sustainability at Hagerty, and leading development and community engagement at 20Fathoms. In 2022, she recognized a market gap in Michigan: cross-sector leadership to translate innovation into real-world deployment and long-term economic impact.
This was the impetus for launching Illuminate Opportunity LLC, a Michigan-based growth strategy and innovation consultancy working across Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Founder, Brittany VanderBeek Phipps, specializes in:
- Serving as Michigan’s innovation ecosystem concierge – helping international and statewide organizations identify customers, partners, pilots, funding, and visibility opportunities
- Spanish-English and French-English language translation, interpretation, and cross-cultural communications support
- Corporate and nonprofit innovation partnerships
- Innovation sprint and design thinking facilitation
- Executive roundtables and strategic planning facilitation
- Process improvement, including Lean Six Sigma tools
Her client experiences have ranged from designing entrepreneurship and innovation programs at Northwestern Michigan College and Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Veteran Entrepreneur Lab to guiding strategic planning and process improvement sessions for various small businesses, nonprofits, and the Michigan Wine Collaborative. Most recently, her work has centered on building Michigan’s freshwater innovation ecosystem. Brittany led the growth of AquaAction in Michigan, including the establishment of the organization’s U.S. headquarters in Detroit and securing Michigan Economic Development Corporation funding to launch the AquaEntrepreneur Michigan program, aligned with Michigan’s Maritime Strategy. She designed and launched Northern Michigan’s first Blue Tech Innovation Challenge in collaboration with Krios Consulting and 20Fathoms, convening water-focused nonprofits with entrepreneurs, universities, industry leaders, and government partners to solve regional water infrastructure and environmental challenges.
Brittany is deeply committed to Michigan and to strengthening the global connections between innovation, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship. Her work has taken her from Northern Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to Detroit and across the Great Lakes, where she has helped develop partnerships among industry, startups, government, academia, and nonprofit organizations.
She holds an International MBA from the University of South Carolina and a BBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Her additional training and certifications include: Design Thinking via Stanford d.school Executive Education, CO.STARTERS CORE Program, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt via Sonoco, Business Analytics via University of South Carolina, Social Entrepreneurship via Acumen, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Professional. An experienced strategist, problem solver, facilitator, and public speaker, Brittany brings a global perspective shaped by work and travel across more than 30 countries, Spanish and French language studies, and a career consistently focused on bringing people together to build the future.
Outside of work, you’ll find her outdoors all four seasons: training for a marathon, taking a pilates class, paddle boarding, trying international cuisines, or volunteering as a lighthouse keeper.