Within the agent element in the UMDM schema there are two attributes that indicate agent role and agent type. Not all agents have both attributes, but at the least, each agent should have a type. There are three types: creator, contributor, and provider. The UMDM schema differentiates between personal and corporate names via the use of the persName or corpName element within agent.
A simple example of a person creator:
<agent type="creator">
<persName>Olson, Mancur</persName>
</agent>