From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpacesetterpace‧set‧ter /ˈpeɪs-setə $ -ər/ (also pacemaker) noun [countable] 1 DSa person or team that is winning in a competition, and that others have to try to defeat That left him three strokes behind the pacesetter, Parry.2 EXAMPLEa person or company that is considered to be a leader in a particular area of activity a new company, now seen as the industry’s pacesetter3 pacemaker(2)
Examples from the Corpus
pacesetter• To date, the banks have been among the pacesetters in western capital's Drang nach dem Osten.• The pacesetter on Friday was Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello, who clocked a lap record of one minute 28.965 seconds.From Longman Business Dictionarypacesetterpace‧set‧ter /ˈpeɪsˌsetə-ər/ noun [countable] a company that is more successful than its competitors because it develops new products, methods etc before they dothe pacesetter for the airline industry 