Is there a word for someone that forces progress?

Pacesetter = a person or organization that is the first to do new or different things and so provides an example for others to follow

Trailblazer = the first person to do something or go somewhere, who shows that it is also possible for other people

Cambridge dictionary

These people, being the first, must be doing it from their own motivation, and not at the behest of others. This means that they are doing it for its own sake. Discomfort and adversity for others may not be intentional, but may come, just as profit and joy might come.

Neither word expresses the disapproval (or approbation) of those who may be compelled to follow.

I think you would need a two-word phrase (at least). Some suggestions:

• A relentless modernizer
• An unapologetic modernizer
• A 'progress' obsessive
• An unabashed modernizer
• A modernizer not afraid to make enemies
• A ruthless modernizer obsessed with change for change's sake
• A ruthless modernizer obsessed with progress for progress' sake

and so on.

A new broom. From the proverb "A new broom sweeps clean"

new broom
noun [ C ]
uk /ˌnjuː ˈbruːm/ us /ˌnuː ˈbruːm/
someone who has just started to work for an organization and intends to make a lot of changes:

The new broom was supposed to improve the way the department is managed, but things have been worse than ever since she arrived.