As defined by the Velocity Network Foundation, an organization operating and maintaining a Credential Agent. An organization may operate the Credential Agent on their own behalf to issue credentials from their own data stores; or, the organization/CAO may operate the Credential Agent to help their Clients issue credentials. In the latter scenario, the Credential Agent Operator processes the credential data, whereas the Client organization plays the Issuer role on the Network. A CAO may service multiple Clients with the same Credential Agent.