The Iowa Board of Railroad Commissioners, one of the oldest agencies in Iowa state government, had three elected commissioners who were charged with regulating railroad passenger and freight rates and operations. This oversight of the network that transported Iowans and their products was critical to pioneer farmers and businesses.

In 1911 the Iowa Legislature established the Office of Commerce Counsel within the Railroad Commission. With the growing use of electricity, the agency was authorized to regulate the location of electric transmission lines in Iowa.  The agency began licensing grain warehouses in Iowa in 1921 and was authorized to regulate passenger and freight rates for intrastate motor truck transportation in 1923.

Authority to regulate natural gas pipeline construction was granted in the early 1930s. Because of its expanded authority, the agency was renamed the Iowa State Commerce Commission in 1937.

Centralized regulation of public utilities for states in the mid-1940s and into the 1950s. In 1963 the Iowa Legislature added the regulation of the rates and service of public utility companies to the Commerce Commission’s responsibilities. Also in 1963, commissioners' terms were extended from two years to six years and the positions became appointed rather than elected.

State government reorganization in 1986 renamed the Iowa State Commerce Commission and included the utilities agency in an umbrella regulatory agency, the Department of Commerce. The new name, the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), reflected the absence of the grain warehouse function that was transferred to the Department of Agriculture.

State government reorganization in 2023 removed the IUB from the umbrella regulatory agency of the Department of Commerce and established the IUB as an independent, stand-alone agency. The agency was renamed Iowa Utilities Commission on July 1, 2024.

The following Iowans have served as board members and/or commissioners:

Iowa Board of Railroad Commissioners (established 1878)

NAMEYEARS SERVED
James W. McDill1878-1881 & 1884-1887
Peter A. Dey1878-1891 & 1892-1895
M.C. Woodruff1878-1882
A.R. Anderson1881-1884
James Wilson1882-1883
Lorenzo S. Coffin1883-1888
Spencer Smith1887-1893
Frank T. Campbell1888-1892
John W. Luke1891-1896
George W. Perkins1893-1899
Charles L. Davidson1895-1898
Edward A. Dawson1896-1907
David J. Palmer1898-1915
Welcome Mowry1899-1902
Ed C. Brown1902-1905
Nathaniel S. Ketchum1905-1915
Willard L. Eaton1907-1911
Clifford Thorne1911-1917
J.H. Wilson1915-1916
Jno. A. Guiher1915-1921
E.D. Chassell1916-1917
Dwight N. Lewis1917-1927
Charles Webster1917-1935
Fred P. Woodruff1921-1925 & 1927-1935
B.M. Richardson*1925-1933 & 1939-1951
M.P. Conway*1933-1941
Geo. A. Huffman*1935-1938
Harry B. Dunlap*1935-1939

Iowa State Commerce Commission (established 1937)

NAMEYEARS SERVED
J.J. Lynch1938-1939
Barr Keshlear1939-1943
Carl W. Reed1941-1957
David B. Long1943-1954
Frank B. Means1952 & 1963-1971
John M. Ropes1953-1959
John A. Tallman1955-1959
Ray H. Thompson1957-1963
Harold E. Hughes1959-1963
Bernard J. Martin1959-1969
Waldo F. Wheeler1963-1965
Dick A. Witt1965-1971
Kenneth J. Benda1969-1971
Howard Bell1971-1975
Maurice Van Nostrand1971-1979
Fred H. Moore1972-1983
Mary F. Holstad1975-1980
Andrew Varley*1979-1988
Christine Hansen*1980-1987
Paul Franzenburg*1983-1991

Iowa Utilities Board (established 1986) 

NAMEYEARS SERVED
Nancy Shimanek Boyd1987-1997
Dennis Nagel1988-1994
Emmit George1991-1999
Allan T. Thoms1995-2001
Paula Dierenfeld1997-1999
Susan Frye1999-2001
Diane Munns1999-2007
Mark O. Lambert2001-2005
Elliott G. Smith2002-2005
Curtis W. Stamp2005-2007
John R. Norris2005-2009
Krista K. Tanner2007-2011
Darrell Hanson2007-2013
Robert Berntsen2009-2011
Swati Dandekar2011-2013
Elizabeth Jacobs2011-2017
Sheila Tipton2013-2015
Nick Wagner2013-2020
Geri D. Huser2015-2023
Richard W. Lozier, Jr.2017-2023

*Asterisks denote service continued through the transition of the agency's name.