ExcelBanter - Conditional Formatting Based on Lookup into List

I have a list of people (with their company in column two) and an ever
updating list of visitors by date (column1) and visitor (column 2). I want
to put a conditional format on the company (in example "GE") field that will
change the color fill when a person is on the visitor list for a specific
day. Example Tues. April 8 2008.

I entered the day I am interested in, and the day after in a feild and had
the match function tell me their rows. Then I tried to get the OR(EXACT... )
function to look in a $FH$ <- put match function there. But this is not
correct.
'=OR(EXACT($Y18,$FU(MATCH($AI$82,$FH$1:$FH$863,0)) :$FU$(MATCH($AI$83,$FH$1:$FH$863,0)))) Where $Y18 is the name column of the list of people.

Two part question;
1. If I can, how do I get a cell reference to work when I know the column
$FH, but the reference row ($82) changes when the external list is updated.
2. Alternative way to do what I am looking to do.
3. Extra Credit (function that returns date of next thursday or another
designated day after current date, preferably in a designated format).

Example list of names (this would be two columns)
Greg Jones......BAE
Joe Smith........GE
Susan Say.......GD

Example query updated list of visitors (also representing two columns.)
Visitor Date...............Visitor
Mon April 7 2008.........X
-................................Jane Doe
-................................Jack Black
-................................etc.
Tues April 8 2008 X
-................................Jane Doe
-................................John Tall
-................................Joe Smith
-................................etc.
Thur April 8 2008 X
-................................Jane Doe
-................................John Tall
-................................Charlie Bore
-................................etc.

Thank you - Zack