<p>This paper is concerned with a nonlinear shear beam model with Kirchhoff-type geometric nonlinearity and Cattaneo-type heat conduction. Different from the classical Fourier law that predicts unphysical infinite thermal propagation speed, the adopted Cattaneo heat conduction mechanism characterizes finite-speed thermal wave propagation and thereby eliminates the associated heat diffusion paradox. The governing system fully couples the dynamic evolution of transverse displacement, rotational angle, temperature field, and heat flux. By virtue of the Faedo–Galerkin approximation scheme, we establish the local well-posedness and small-data global existence of solutions under compatible initial conditions. Furthermore, by combining the integral multiplier technique with the classical Haraux–Lagnese integral inequality, we rigorously prove that the total energy of the system decays exponentially toward zero as time goes to infinity. Notably, the exponential stability result is achieved solely under the small initial energy assumption, without requiring any additional algebraic restrictions on the physical parameters of the model.</p>