Stories

Jo Murray, senior vice president in Global Corporate Trust, is preparing to row across the Atlantic Ocean

After the youngest of Jo Murray’s two sons left home, she decided to embrace the new chapter in her life and embark on a new adventure – one that will involve rowing some 3,000 miles across the open ocean from the Canary Islands off the Coast of North Africa to the West Indies in the Caribbean.

“My children are grown up, and I thought it would be lovely to have a challenge and adventure, and if I’m not going to do it now when am I going to do it?” said Murray, senior vice president in U.S. Bank’s Global Corporate Trust.

London-based Murray is on a team with two other women training for The World’s Toughest Row, which will take place in December 2025. They’ve already been planning and training for the event for over 18 months, and preparation for the undertaking is no small feat. First, there was securing the specialized ocean rowing boat, which costs $100,000 and is designed to withstand capsizing in giant ocean waves and contains enough compartments to hold the team’s food and other supplies for the entire journey. Then there’s funding and understanding all the equipment needed to support the crossing and the extensive safety preparations, ranging from mandatory medical, sea survival and navigation training to required number of hours of documented night and open water rowing.

“Part of the reason we selected The World’s Toughest Row is we wanted to have an adventure, but we didn’t want to be stupid about it,” Murray said. “It’s part of an organized row, and there are safety precautions and rules and regulations coming out of your ears.

It’s a little like banking in that regard,” she added with a laugh.

Finally, there is the physical preparation. Murray already was an avid coastal rower, taking up the sport in earnest about six years ago. The logistics of keeping a boat rowing properly on course, night and day, without interruption for an estimated 45 days straight brings its own unique challenges. Murray is focusing on building up her core strength and flexibility so her body can withstand rowing while the boat is rolled by ocean waves that could potentially top 30 feet.

“The most important thing is not getting injured, because if something happens and one of you can’t row you are really in trouble,” she said.

Beyond the challenge of continuously rowing, the team also has to successfully navigate trading spots within the boat every two or three hours, allowing each of the team members to briefly nap or prepare food so they each can consume the estimated 4,000 calories they will need each day. Murray plans to acclimate her body for that schedule by setting her alarm for all hours of the night and hopping on her rowing machine so she knows how to competently row while profoundly sleep-deprived.

Daunting as all of that sounds, Murray is invigorated by the scope of the undertaking and the bonding she’s already experienced with her two teammates, one of whom is a longtime friend she met through coastal rowing and the other who joined the team later and has become a dear friend too.

“I really like the idea of an adventure with a group of women who rely on each other,” she said. “We’ve formed that same kind of friendship and bond that you have with your close friends as a child.”

Murray is doing all of this while working full-time at U.S. Bank, heading the business management function within the bank’s Corporate Trust group in Europe. Corporate Trust supports issuers of debt, including institutional clients, corporations, other banks and investment managers. Preparing for The World’s Toughest Row has underscored the value of teamwork for Murray that she carries through to her work at the bank.

“It’s given me a renewed appreciation for what a team can accomplish when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” she said. “We are three women, and friends, who row together but we all have different backgrounds and skill sets. That’s what work is, too – people with different experiences and skills working together for the common goal of delivering effectively to our clients.”

Murray says her manager and colleagues have “all been incredibly supportive, but they also think I’m mad.”

When the event begins in December 2025, Murray and her team will have to complete the row completely unassisted. Any resupplies of food, potable water or other supplies will result in disqualification. Their boat will have beacons so it will be visible to ships and the boat must carry three satellite phones, but the team will mostly be out of touch with friends and family in England until they land on the shores of Antigua.

Murray’s team, named The Only Way is Rowing, is raising money with their adventure for three nonprofit organizations with their endeavor – Rewilding Britain, Wilderness Foundation UK and Shelter. The nonprofits’ missions are closely tied to team’s love of nature, helping preserve it or expand access to improve mental health and wellbeing.

“I love rowing on the open water – it’s so lovely. Being out in nature to helps to balance you,” she said. All of the team members “get so much pleasure from being out in the nature, and we want to give some of that back.”