Eric Von Hippel
An important author on the subject of innovation in general and lead user innovation in particular.
Author of, among others,
- SourcesOfInnovation
- Democratising Innovation, a paper summarizing very important findings about innovation.
In the paper, von Hippel refers to the "two defining characteristics of a lead user".
His website is at http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/index.html