His father, Ants Nuder, was one of the numerous Estonian refugees who fled to Sweden to escape the Soviet invasion at the end of World War II.

During his childhood, Nuder spent several summers in Israel, which has resulted in a strong personal commitment to the Middle East peace process.

This impression was trengthened by Persson's move to let Nuder join his cabinet as minister for policy co-ordination in 2002, an influential behind-the-scenes post.

During a speech in December 2004, he introduced the controversial term köttberg (mountain of meat) to describe the baby boomer generation (born in the 1940s).

During early 2008, he lost his position as Social Democratic candidate for finance minister due to quarrels with party leader Mona Sahlin.

Nuder has also been an advisor to the private equity firm EQT and member of the President's Advisory Council, Tokyo University.

Nuder was a columnist at the business newspaper Dagens industri for seven years and has written an autobiography called Stolt men inte nöjd: en kärleksförklaring till politiken.