pacesetter

• pace-setter, pace setter

pace +‎ setter

pacesetter (plural pacesetters)

1. A person who determines the rate of action through leading.
   • 2022 September 23, Jason Farago, “The World’s Most Prestigious Art Exhibition Is Over. Maybe Forever.”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     It’s all been a dreadful embarrassment, but why should anyone outside Germany be concerned? Because Documenta was always a pacesetter — and this year’s edition certainly put its finger on a larger shift, seen too in our museums, our art schools and our magazines, away from aesthetic ambition and intellectual seriousness and toward the easier comforts of togetherness, advocacy and fun.

• bring up the rear
• take up the running