About

Curt Valva

Curt  has over 30 years of experience in the personal, food, and home care CPG  industry. Prior to founding  Sunstate, Mr. Valva was with Aubrey Organics for 15years holding  various executive positions including President, COO, and GM.  He  previously held similar roles at Estee Lauder, the world leader in  prestige cosmetics in both the US and Canada.  He is an active member of  the NSF task force chartered with writing ‘Organic’ standards for  personal care products in the USA.  He served as a board member of the  Natural Products Foundation and was an active member in the Natural Products  Association.

As the founder of Sunstate NPC, Mr. Valva consults  with small to mid-sized Natural Products companies.  Focus is on  International sales development, certification, standards, strategy, structure, branding, operations,  and marketing.

Curt has been a guest educational speaker at  NP Expo East, NP Expo West, the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit, NPA,  BioFach/Vivanesse, and Beyond Beauty in Paris.  He holds an MBA  (Finance) from Hofstra University in NY, a BBA in Marketing.

Selçuk Mumcu

Selçuk Mumcu, a native of Turkey, has over 20 years of natural products import/export experience on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Selçuk held positions with Nutraceutical International Corporation (now Better Being Company) as their Regional Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa; as Director of Operations- Europe and then Director of Operations – Canada.   During his employment with Nutraceutical Corporation Selçuk was seconded to set-up and manage Nutraceuticals UK subsidiary (Brighton, UK, 2001 – 2004) and spearheaded launching and expanding several brands such as  Action Labs, Solaray and Aubrey Organics.  The next 11 years in his career took Selcuk to Tampa, Florida to join Aubrey Organic as the Director of International Sales (2005 – 2016).   During this time Selçuk launched Aubrey in over 25 countries and assisted in making sure Aubrey Organics became among the first in US to obtain several natural certifications such as the highly regarded Cosmos Organic Certification.

Selcuk’s focus areas include but are not limited to finding and managing distributors, coordinating the export flow/process, reviewing and negotiating distribution contracts, providing regulatory assistance and coordination of registration projects for cosmetics in the EU and Asia. These business development steps when followed through persistently is almost always guaranteed to result in international sales revenue growth for companies that already have highly in demand products selling in the US market.  

For foreign firms who want to expand into the US market we offer a 4 -step market prep program starting with 3 basic questions – who to sell, where to sell and how to sell.

Our biggest strength is bringing connections developed over the past 20+ years together.  We then share our experience – saving time & money to companies. 

We assist currently small to medium sized companies in starting/managing/growing their international business, and also represent (European) Cosmos Standard (World’s leading certification standard for natural and organic personal care products) in USA.

Selcuk presented as speaker in numerous industry events such as at the International Cosmetics Conference (Munich, 2017), Vivaness/Biofach (2018 & 2022), and Ecovia Cosmetics Summit (2022).   He holds an MA in International Relations with major in International Law from University of Ankara, Turkiye.  Selcuk speaks English, German and Turkish and can handle culturally sensitive business transactions in the East and West.