CEO - Finance
Now sure, it's not like anybody else ever tries to park there these days. But Mulcahy swears that anybody is welcome to use the spot if his silver 1996 Porsche Boxster is not already there - at least on weekends.
"I don't think hierarchy is a good thing in organisations,'' he says.
"There's an organisational hierarchy but that doesn't mean anyone's more important than anyone else, if you know what I mean.''
Removing the sign was just one way that Mulcahy, 55, has sought to paint himself as an approachable boss since he joined the Queensland-based allfinanz group as chief executive in 2003.
Despite being paid more than $3.5 million last year, Mulcahy still eats in the company canteen, takes part in the annual corporate fun run, and turns up for our 3pm interview dressed casually and sipping from a cardboard cup of cappuccino.
He is at pains to point out that, besides the fact he runs a multibillion-dollar top 20 company and enjoys the sort of wealth that most people will only ever dream of, he's just a normal dad.
Ask what drives him, and the answer is simple. It's his kids, or more accurately his two youngest kids - toddlers from his second marriage, to former work colleague Ana.
"I think having a second family is . . . well, what drives me about trying to keep healthy is being there for my little kids and my wife who's 14 years younger than me.''
But Mulcahy says he's also passionate about nurturing future leaders in the workplace. It's something that he picked up as a young engineer and then project manager with Lend Lease during the developer's halcyon days under founder Dick Dusseldorp, when it was considered a "leader factory''.
He cites as his philosophy a quote from American consumer activist Ralph Nader that "the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers''.
"Leadership's a critically important part of any corporation, and teaching people to be leaders is central to that,'' Mulcahy says. "I think the fact that we've had two of my direct reports retire, and in both instances we've replaced them with successors internally shows the sort of leadership capabilities we are growing here.''
But succession planning is only one small part of the strategy he has implemented in his time at Suncorp, with "better people systems, better remuneration systems, better planning systems'' also on his list of achievements.
Perhaps the biggest change came just months into his tenure when he initiated a full restructure of the company's 8000-strong workforce based on the methodology espoused by Canadian organisational theorist Elliott Jaques.
As part of the six month-long restructure, roles were redesigned, management layers reorganised and a scorecard was introduced for every staff member with clear goals relating to customers, fellow employees, shareholders and the community.
"If we hadn't reorganised we'd have never got to where we are going,'' Mulcahy says. "It primarily means people are now accountable for their roles and they know what they have to do and therefore we're all heading in the same direction.''
It's this sort of big picture stuff that Mulcahy sees as his job, with the nitty-gritty details left to his senior management team.
"The chief executive's job is to first of all select the direct report team and help paint the direction you're heading in, but then to put in place the right systems and processes in place to achieve that,'' he says.
"My background as an engineer sets me up well for that. I think engineers are pretty good at looking forward, planning where they want to go and then working out how to deliver it, and that's what I bring to this job.
"I think about where we want to be and then how we're going to get there and make sure we're all heading in the same direction.''
Don't be fooled, though. Mulcahy is far from a small-time engineer plucked from obscurity to head up Queensland's biggest company and the nation's sixth-largest bank.
After rising to become chief executive of Lend Lease's property investment services, he spent almost a decade at the Commonwealth Bank as head of information technology and then head of retail banking -- even being touted at one stage as a possible successor to David Murray.
But then the banana bank came calling, and he headed north. It was a big change for this Sydney boy, but Mulcahy says he saw it as a great opportunity.
"And I've discovered a stronger sense of success and dynamism here than I'd anticipated,'' he says.
"The state's economy's going really strongly and there's a real sense of we're going to be successful in Queensland. I know it's the Sunshine State and all that, but the Government has got a pretty diversified economy, it's put a lot of effort into Smart State . . . and then you've got minerals, coal, tourism.
"There's lots of SME businesses here and not many large businesses and so there's this real sense of dynamism and growth.
"I love it, I think it's a great place to work -- and I think the general community is a friendlier place.'' He now calls Queensland "home'', despite the fact he only rents his luxury riverside residence at Teneriffe.
"I missed the price rise actually,'' Mulcahy explains.
"I reckon they're pretty expensive on the river, and we love it on the river but I wouldn't buy a property just emotionally -- it needs to be something that's good value.
"We tried to buy originally, we tried to buy the place we're in but then the guy hung on to it and by the time he decided to sell it, the price had gone through the roof.''
Mulcahy, however, has no shortage of dollars tied up in real estate. He boasts a mansion at swanky Cremorne Point on Sydney Harbour which he bought for a shade over $3 million in June 2002 and has spent the past three years renovating.
The Mulcahys spent Christmas there this year with extended family including the offspring from his first marriage, Emma, 30, and Matthew, 29.
He then returned north with Ana, three-year-old Sam and 18 month-old Kaitlin on Boxing Day for what has become a family tradition of holidaying at Noosa.
"We rent a house on the river and just have a couple of weeks at Noosa, it's fantastic,'' he says.
"We've got a little runabout that we can ski behind . . . and pretend we can go out through the sandbar and pretend we can fish.
"We haven't caught anything ever, because I'm hopeless at fishing.''
But it's all about relaxing, something Mulcahy says he has no trouble doing on his time off.
Mulcahy says there's plenty of fuel left in the tank. He has no plans to voluntarily move on when his contract with Suncorp expires in January 2008.
"I'd be happy to stay here beyond 2008, but at some point I'll have to move on because in a succession planning sense you can't stay so long that your successors don't have an opportunity,'' he says.
