Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed Katie Clark as the new commissioner of the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.

She replaces Mark Phillips, who will resign Friday.

Clark has been the director of the Minnesota Trade Office and worked as finance director of Dayton’s campaign. She’s also worked for Target Corp. and was director of community relations for a start-up wind energy developer, National Wind.

As head of the Trade Office, Dayton’s office said Clark:

“…led efforts to increase Foreign Direct Investment in Minnesota and developed a coaching program for new export companies to help small and mid-sized companies develop export plans. Clark was also instrumental in helping launch the Minneapolis-St. Paul Export Initiative, a strategic partnership between the Minnesota Trade Office, the city of Minneapolis, and the Brookings Institute which aims to double the regions exports by 2017.”

Phillips had been appointed to head DEED just weeks after Dayton took office. Phillips was a northern Minnesota developer, who’d worked for Kraus-Anderson Construction and had been with the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.