The men and women who control a third of the world’s liquid assets – approximately $30 trillion – came together May 27, to put business and investors together to work on society’s recalibration post financial crisis.

According to a press release put out by nonprofit Inclusive Capitalism Initiative, which is a driver of the event, since the financial crisis, leaders have questioned whether the public will continue to support a system that nurtures growing inequality, permits and even rewards unethical behavior, and suppressed the importance of social purposes in favor of a primary focus on results.

The conference, was streamed on the web, included presentations by former President Bill Clinton, Founder of the Clinton Foundation, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and Mark Carney, governor, Bank of England and Chair of the Financial Stability Board.

Three areas the conference focused upon include:

  1. Promoting responsible behavior that underpins the integrity and fairness of the system and safeguards the interests of people and companies working within it.
  2. Building economic opportunity through enhanced education, skills training, job creation and innovation.
  3. Investing for the long term by focusing on the greatest return for all those with a stake in capitalism’s stability, instead of just the quickest return for shareholders.

“In the past, economists have underestimated the importance of inequality. They have focused on economic growth, on the size of the pie rather than its distribution,” said Lagarde, managing director of the IMF in a press release.

“Today, we are more keenly aware of the damage done by inequality. Put simply, a severely skewed income distribution harms the pace and sustainability of growth over the longer term. It leads to an economy of exclusion, and a wasteland of discarded potential.”

Lagarde said the following in prepared remarks at the event:

“At the end of the day, when the global economy is more inclusive, the gains are less elusive. The market is more effective, and a better future—for everyone—is more likely.”

Lagarde’s speech can be found here.