Ventrone serves clients, country

Two-and-a-half years ago, Melissa Ventrone's office was in a wooden building, without windows, surrounded by a sun-baked desert and in the middle of a war zone. When the wind blew, it forced sand through the wooden building's cracks, coating her computer with a thin film of grit. Today, Ventrone's office is in the heart of the third most populous city in the country, on the 38th floor of a high …