(Bloomberg) -- Joby Aero Inc. has nabbed LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman to sit on its board along with several prominent technology and aviation executives, a coup for the electric air-taxi startup as it prepares to go public.

Google General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado and Laura Wright, a former Southwest Airlines Co. chief financial officer, also will join Joby’s eight-person board, the company said in a statement Friday.

Joby was founded in 2009 and is backed by Intel Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and JetBlue Airways Corp. The air-taxi designer agreed to merge with Reinvent Technology Partners, a special purpose acquisition company, as a means to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. A shareholder vote on the deal is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Prado, Wright and Hoffman, who is Reinvent’s co-lead director, will become Joby directors when the merger closes.

They will join Aicha Evans, the chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc. autonomous-car unit Zoox, and James Kuffner, a former Google engineer, who had been selected earlier. Kuffner is co-inventor of an algorithm that has become a standard for robot motion planning. He is CEO of Woven Planet Holdings, a Tokyo-based software firm affiliated with Toyota.

Joby is developing a piloted, four-passenger electric aircraft that can travel as far as 150 miles (240 kilometers) and reach 200 miles per hour. The burgeoning industry in electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft -- which has garnered orders from United Airlines Holdings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. -- is seeking to reduce carbon emissions and urban traffic congestion.

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