Robert P. Briggs was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago board of directors, vice-president of finance of the University of Michigan, and executive vice-president of Consumer Power Company of Jackson, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Briggs served as a professor in the University's School of Business Administration, first as an administrator, and eventually as a member of the Board of Regents. Briggs spent 17 years as an executive vice-president at the Consumer Power Company, where he led various committees and organizations within the state of Michigan. Some of these organizations included: the Michigan United Fund, the Michigan State Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Traffic Safety Commission, and the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. Dividend magazine, a publication by the University of Michigan's then School of Business Administration, described Briggs' career as having, "embraced both academic and business worlds, and his activities have covered an almost endless range of community and business affairs."

The Regents of the University of Michigan, sometimes referred to as the board of regents, is a constitutional office of the U.S. state of Michigan which forms the governing body of the University of Michigan, University of Michigan–Flint, and University of Michigan–Dearborn.